EU ROLLS OUT RAIL PRIVATISATION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2019 :: RMTnews 18 Trains across Norway stopped for two hours for a number of days in October as workers walked out in protest at the implementation of the EU’s Fourth Railway Package demanding ‘competition’ in railway services. Workers all over Norway walked off the job bringing all train traffic to a standstill and cancellations and delays throughout the days of action. The Fourth EU Railway Package is a set of six legislative texts to establish a single market for rail services dominated by the EU rules – the Single European Railway Area. Even though Norway is not a member of the EU, it has to comply with the regulations due to its membership of the European Economic Area Agreement. The European Parliament, which cannot make law, has rubberstamped the ‘market pillar’ of the EU’s Fourth Railway Package which means that train operators must have complete access to the networks of member states to operate domestic passenger services. The European Council had already agreed that mandatory competitive tendering should be the main way of awarding public service contracts under the package which comes into law in December 2019. As a result, the European Commission has also sent a ‘reasoned opinion’ to Greece and Ireland for breaching EU law and is demanding the transposition of EU rules on the opening of the market for rail domestic passenger transport services and the governance of the railway infrastructure ie privatisation. If the two countries do not comply with their EU obligations, the Commission may refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the EU which can impose huge fines on any members state. The Commission also sent a letter of formal notice to Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland last July for failing to transpose certain provisions of the EU rules on establishing a single European railway area (Directive 2012/34/EU). French president Emmanuel Macron France launched attempts to impose the Directive last year which has sparked protests throughout society ever since as it embodies the President’s harsh neoliberal agenda. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the main features of rail reform included ending guarantees for rail workers, a social right established during the Liberation from Nazi Occupation at the end of World War II. This is very symbolic as rail workers played an important role in the resistance to the Nazi Occupation. As the state French railways SNCF helped the Nazis deport hundreds of thousands to death camps, important sections of railway workers joined the resistance. Approximately 800 SNCF employees were shot by the Nazis for disobeying orders. Nearly 1,200 were deported to concentration camps for sabotage or insubordination and 2,361 were killed in the war. Yet 75 years later, Macron’s attacks on the railway workers aim to scrap these social rights. The abolition of the railway workers’ status is not explicitly included in the EU’s liberalisation plans under the rail package. However, its inclusion in the bill was justified by the necessity to prepare the SNCF for private competition in the railway industry and its debt which amounts to 46.6 billion euros. NORWAY Rail unions in Norway Norsk Lokomotiv-mannsforbund (NLF) and Norsk Jernbaneforbund (NJF) oppose the EU’s neoliberal plans and both call for railway regulations to be formulated and made in Norway not in Brussels. The EU package effectively removes Norway’s jurisdiction over railway safety regulations. The authority to issue safety certificates to train companies will shift from Norway’s National Railway Inspectorate to the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). The ERA has consistently worked to remove laws and regulations mandating security requirements and sought to transfer the responsibility to individual EU ROLLS OUT RAIL PRIVATISATION European Union Fourth rail package demands compulsory tendering and neoliberal deregulation for all member states by December 2019