Development of the Community's railways

The amended Commission proposal incorporated three of the nine amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading: - stressing that the principle of freedom to provide services must be applied uniformly in the Member States as the directive is implemented, in order to avoid distortions of competition in and between the Member States; - stressing the need to take account of the socio-economic role of regional rail transport in the process of liberalization; - stating that access and transit rights to the infrastructure must be granted on equitable, transparent and non-discriminatory conditions. The Commission rejected the following amendments: - requiring the Member States to help reduce debt and improve finances by the date of transposal of the directive; - requiring the Member States to ensure that the railways have customary own resources; - requiring the Member States to require the establishment of separate debt amortization units within railway undertakings; - requiring the Member States to ensure by 1 January 2000 that the railways are not at a disadvantage compared to other modes of transport as regards VAT on cross-border transport and other fiscal provisions such as duty-free sales; - requiring the Commission to report on plans to further interoperability. �