23 and 24 May 2017 in Valenciennes First meeting of the WP for development of recommendation on the revision of Regulation 445/2011 23 and 24 May 2017 in Valenciennes

COTIF – Unified railway law to connect Europe, Asia and Africa Founded in 1893 in Bern Applies to international traffic by rail Is international law Member States can make declarations not to apply selected parts of COTIF Freight / Passenger Contracts Legal interoperability Dangerous Goods Regulation Exchange of dangerous goods wagons Technical Regulation Safe exchange of vehicles Technical interoperability High level rules, that relies on the sector for implementation of detailled Contract/technical spcecification

Champ d’application géographique de la COTIF et ses appendices Geografischer Anwendungsbereich des COTIF und dessen Anhänge Geographical scope of COTIF and its appendices État au 15 août 2016 Stand 15. August 2016 Situation on 15th August 2016

ECM - Relevance for OTIF Since 1 May 2012, equivalence between COTIF´s and EU processes of certification of ECM for freight wagons (ATMF Annex A and Regulation 445/2011). Each vehicle used internationally (not only freight wagons) in the scope of COTIF must have an ECM assigned to it. All the ECMs for freight wagons must be certified in accordance with the ECM regulation. All the ECM certificates, certificates for ECM functions and ECM certification bodies needs to be registered in the data bank. Since 1 April 2014, a joint OTIF – EU registers for ECM is operational and hosted on the ERA website (ERADIS). OTIF Secretariat attends ERA´s WPs as an observer, in accordance with Article 5 of Administrative Arrangements between OTIF, DG Move and ERA of October 2013. It is important that equivalence is maintained between OTIF and EU ECM provisions. Article 15 of ATMF, maintenance of the vehicle Annex A of ATMF RULES FOR CERTIFICATION AND AUDITING OF ECM applicable from 1.12.2015 OTIF´s Explanatory document: ECM regulations for freight wagons. Reference A94-30/2.2013 of 27.05.2013 (8) ECM QUESTIONNAIRE FOR NSA, January 2016. (3) certified by an ECM certification body. It also means that ECMs certified under OTIF regime are equivalent to those certified under the EU regime. (4) With the aim to facilitate the access to information and to make them available through a single point, the OTIF ECM and EU registers were merged and operational since 1 April 2014. Since then, the ECM Certification bodies of the non-EU OTIF Contracting States themselves needs to register changes which regard the ECMs directly in ERADIS database and to send a notification to the OTIF Secretariat.

Stakes from a COTIF perspective COTIF only covers vehicles which are operated internationally, as opposed to EU legislation, which also covers vehicles operated nationally. Contrary to EU law, this means that COTIF law applies to a portion of the fleet: For freight wagon a huge portion (most are used internationally) For other types of vehicles a small portion (most are used only domestically) Freight wagons are typically used by many different RUs, therefore the ECM and operating RU usually do not have a direct relation (the keeper acts as an intermediary) For locomotives and trainsets operated internationally, typically the RU, ECM and keeper are of the same organisation (e.g. SNCF, DB) so there are less questions as to who is responsible for what. International passenger coaches (e.g. RIC) are used in a way more similar to freight wagons (1) COTIF and EU laws have a different scope of appliccation. COTIF only applies to international trafffic, while EU law applies to all traffic, i.e. domestic and international. The OTIF Secretariat was therefore of the view that the ECM regulation should not be made mandatory for all vehicles. (32) Freight wagons in international traffic are generally operated by different RU, while the ECM remains the same. (4) In such case the RU is in a good position to influence the quality of maintenance.

OTIF Secretariat’s view The cost of setting up an ECM scheme for vehicles other than freight wagons is likely to be higher per unit/vehicle for countries outside the EU. As long as there is no indication that there is a safety problem, the OTIF Secretariat suggests that ECM certification should remain voluntary for passenger coaches, locomotives or train sets. ECM certification for passenger coaches used internationally would be justified from a conceptual point of view. However, its number is much smaller than the number of freight wagons used internationally. For types of vehicles where ECM certification would be voluntary, Member State should not refuse the international use of vehicles without a certified ECM. The OTIF Secretariat set out its position in February 2016 and sent it to ERA. The position paper is available to this working group. (1) The cost for setting up an ECM certification scheme, the certification itself etc., must be devided among smaller number of vehicles, which may affect the cost/benefit ratio. As a result, for those OTIF MS which have closed markets, it is possible that general costs for implementing ECM certification scheme might be higher per unit/vehicle for countries outside the EU. (2) The OTIF Secretariat was therefore of the view that the ECM regulation should not be made mandatory for all vehicles. (3) … as coaches may be exchanged between several railway undertakings in a way that is comparable to freight wagons. ½ of all freight traffic is international, compared to 10% of all passenger traffic. (4) …even if the State would require mandatory ECM certification for its domestic fleet. (5) The OTIF Secretariat´s position paper was sent to ERA by e-mail on 1.2.2016. (RISC 73 (June 2015), where the Commission presented a mandate to ERA on the revision of the ECM Regulation (EU/445/2011) and Freight focus group meeting (Valenciennes, 21-21 October 2015), where ERA presented the planned activities in this context, resulted in the creation of the OTIF Secretariat´s position paper on the possible scope extension of the ECM certification rules. The non-EU OTIF Member States’ competent authorities have been consulted on its content.)

OTIF Secretariat Dragan NEŠIĆ Gryphenhübeliweg 30 CH - 3006 Berne + 41 (0)31 359 10 24 media@otif.org www.otif.org