Regulation (EU) 2020/1530

What it is

to amend Directive (EU) 2016/798, as regards the application of railway safety in order to deal specifically with the situation of the Channel Fixed Link after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: the Treaty between France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning the construction and operation by private concessionaires of a Channel Fixed Link, signed at Canterbury on 12 February 1986 established an Intergovernmental Commission to supervise all matters concerning the concerning the construction and operation of the Channel Fixed Link. The European Parliament adopted by 687 votes to 4, with 4 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2016/798, as regards the application of railway safety and interoperability rules within the Channel Fixed Link. The European Parliament adopted its position at first reading in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure on the proposal which aims to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the Channel fixed link after the end of the transitional period provided for in the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The Intergovernmental Commission is the national safety authority within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2016/798, responsible for the Channel fixed link. After the end of the transitional period, the Intergovernmental Commission shall become a body established by an international agreement between a Member State, namely France, and a third country, namely the United Kingdom. Unless otherwise provided for in an international agreement binding the United Kingdom, it shall no longer be a national security authority under Union law, which shall no longer apply to the part of the Channel fixed link under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. - retain the Intergovernmental Commission as the single competent safety authority for the whole of that infrastructure. To this end, a proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council shall empower France, under certain conditions, to negotiate and conclude an international agreement supplementing the Treaty of Canterbury, which shall maintain the Intergovernmental Commission as the single national safety authority for the Channel fixed link; - establish specific rules regarding the specific safety authorities and the duties of the Member State concerned to take all the necessary measures to ensure that Union law is applied at all times by the specific safety authority or, failing that, by its national safety authority; - give the Court of Justice of the European Union jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings at the request of an arbitral tribunal set up by an international agreement where a dispute submitted to arbitration raises a question of interpretation of Union law. Where the arbitral tribunal does not…

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