Development of Community's railways (amend. Directive 91/440/EEC). Railway package

At first reading under cooperation procedure, the European Parliament approved the proposal for a Council directive amending directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community's railways subject to amendments, notably in the following areas: - underlining that rail liberalisation should proceed in stages in conjunction with the parallel implementation of the necessary accompanying harmosation measures; - requiring access rights at this stage to be extended to all railway undertakings for the international transport of goods; - suggesting that in addition to the enforcement of safety rules, the monitoring of safety and the investigation of serious accidents should also be carried out by independent bodies; - ensuring the access to Member States' networks for railway undertakings engaged in the international transport of goods and international groupings of railway undertakings; - extending the definition of "infrastructure manager" to include any body involved in operating the control and safety systems; - requiring the Member States to create entities, separate from railway undertakings, for the management of their railway infrastructure, not later than 2 years after the directive's entry into force; - requiring the organisation of distinct divisions within a single undertaking until this has been done; - ensuring the highest possible level of safety standards. The Parliament's rapporteur is Pavlos Sarlis (PPE,GR).�