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

 The committee adopted the report by Gilles SAVARY (PES, FR) amending the Council's common position under the 2nd reading of the codecision procedure. It proposed a number of amendments reflecting Parliament's position at 1st reading on certain issues over which there was disagreement with the Council:

- the scope of the directive: the committee again insisted that the scope of certification be extended to all crew who help ensure safety on trains - i.e. "other crew members performing safety-related tasks on the Community's rail network" - and not just train drivers. It amended Articles 1 and 27 accordingly, and introduced a new definition clarifying the distinction between train drivers and other crew members;

- access to data: the committee reinstated Parliament's 1st reading amendment allowing train drivers to access stored data which concerns them;

- financing of training: MEPs in the committee tabled an expanded version of an amendment adopted by Parliament at 1st reading as a safeguard clause designed to protect the investments made by railway undertakings. The amendment stipulated that the voluntary departure of a driver, after less than five years' employment, from the railway undertaking which funded his training shall oblige the new employer (i.e. a railway undertaking or infrastructure manager) to refund to the original railway undertaking the cost of that training in the form of a sum inversely proportional to the duration of the driver's employment with the original undertaking;

- lastly, the committee reinstated the Commission's initial text on the mutual recognition of licences and harmonised complementary certificates.