Railway transport: certification of train crews and drivers. 3rd package

The Commission states that its proposal envisaged covering all train crew members with safety-critical tasks and did not provide for the possibility of derogation for a Member State. However, the Commission recognises that the Council common position does not alter the main objective or the spirit of its proposal. On the possibility of a temporary derogation for “domestic” drivers, the Commission cannot accept such derogations on the scale of entire countries for several reasons. Firstly, in social terms, this would be tantamount to creating two “classes” of drivers, whereas in practice these categories are not watertight. This would generate career and wage differences that it would be difficult to justify. Secondly, in safety terms, there would be two categories of drivers on the same route: those trained and certified in accordance with this directive, and those trained and certified in accordance with an ad hocnational system. They might not have the same reactions in the same situations. Thirdly, in economic terms, the Member States would have to maintain two different sets of legislation and two accreditation/recognition systems for trainers/examiners, the undertakings would have to maintain two different training systems, etc. This duplication would be inefficient and generate costs.