A European Court ruling may stop the creation of BDZ-2

A European Court ruling may block the amendments to the railway transport law, the bill on which was published two weeks ago on the website of the Ministry of Transport. According to these changes, the National Company Railway Infrastructure will have the right to provide its own transport. According to railway experts, these changes give the possibility of creating a holding company between the infrastructure and BDZ Passenger Transport.

Such a holding pattern currently exists in Germany and Austria, where DeutcheBan (DB) and the Austrian Federal Railways (OBB), respectively, are responsible for the infrastructure and perform operator activities. Exactly these two cases, however, are currently at the lawsuit phase at the European Court for the application of criminal proceedings for failure of the First Railway Package. According to the European Commission, the existence of these holdings is against the application of the European requirements for liberalisation of the market.

Advocate General at the Court Niilo Jääskinen said that, legally speaking, the existence of these holdings is legal and does not violate the directives. According to him, there is no legal requirement for the railway infrastructure to be a separate entity from the passenger carrier.

If the Court adopts a decision against DB and OBB, then, the eventual unification of NRIC and BDZ - Passenger Transport will result in taking up criminal action against Bulgaria.

The topic "pros and cons" of holding structures will be the centre of the upcoming debates on the project about the Fourth Railway package of measures. According to the EC, the carrier should be completely separated from the infrastructure. Late in September, Commissioner Siim Kallas announced that he is sceptical about the ability of the companies maintaining the railway to provide equal conditions for all railway operators, given that they are their competitors.

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