Meetings at the European Commission on Brussels had today the minister of state in charge of infrastructure and transport, George Herapetritisabout the accident Tempe and investigation of cooperation between Greece and the Commission in matters railways.

Mr. Gerapetritis met with Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean and Bjorn Seibert, Director of the Office of the President of the Commission. All three officials of the Commission expressed their condolences to Mr. Gerapetritis on the tragic accident at Tempi and the desire of the Commission to help the Greek authorities also in the investigation of the accident, but mainly in the formation of a railway structure that is safer, more rational and more attractive to citizens.

“We start from the basic starting point that is common to Greece and the Commission, which is that we want to move towards a better, more expanded and more popular railway,” said Mr. Gerapetritis at a briefing for Greek correspondents in Brussels. According to him, it was agreed that Greece will receive technical assistance from the European Commission in developing the capacity and structural organization of the railways. In addition, the Greek authorities will continuously cooperate with the Commission both in the investigation of the accident and in the monitoring of railway projects.

In particular, Mr. Gerapetritis mentioned that the Greek authorities will, in constant cooperation with the Commission, oversee the electronic modernization of railway safety (ERTMS) projects, which include signaling and remote control parts. The contracts should be completed by the end of September 2023 on the Athens-Thessaloniki main axis, said Mr Gerapetritis, who expressed hope that the automatic braking systems (ETCS) would also be completed by then.

In addition, there will be cooperation with the European Commission on railway personnel and on the staffing of the aviation and railway accident investigation agency.

With regard to the investigation of the Tempe accident, the Greek side asked the Commission to identify experts from abroad who could somehow be involved in an independent investigation. However, it is known from other cases abroad that this independent expert investigation takes several months. In any case, Mr. Gerapetritis stated that Greece intends to formally apply to the European Railway Agency (ERA) and the Commission with a request to take an active part in the investigation of the accident.

Representatives of the technical levels of the European Commission will arrive in Athens next week.

Source: RES-IPE