Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Busses and coaches are one of the most accessible and most important modes of transport in the EU. They connect rural and urban areas of the Member States, often being the only means of public transportation available in certain regions. It is therefore vital that passengers receive the best service possible. Fair and healthy competition is the best way to achieve that.

Your Rapporteur welcomes the Commission’s proposal for amending the relevant regulation which seeks to open the business for non-resident carriers that are currently prevented from entering a national market to offer inter-urban coach services. As such, a carrier from a country A should be able to freely offer national services from point X to point Y in a country B. Discrimination on grounds of nationality or place of establishment cannot be permitted in the single market.

With the below amendments, Your Rapporteur has kept the spirit of the proposal — further liberalisation of the bus and coach markets — in place. At the same time, Your Rapporteur takes into account the fact that the situation in the bus market varies from one country to another and has also been careful not to undermine the well-functioning systems of certain Member States.

Protection of public service contracts and urban areas

Public service contracts (PSCs) serve a specific and an invaluable purpose. Proper protection of such contracts is necessary to ensure that opening up of the bus and coach market does not result in fewer services for the relevant regions and just cherry picking of the profitable routes by the new entrants in the market. For that reason Your Rapporteur has introduced a new clause whereby authorisation for a new service can effectively be denied even over the Commission’s proposed 100 km ceiling if the relevant service undermines an existing PSC that has been tendered in a transparent way without possibility of extension, bundles together profitable and unprofitable routes and receives no significant public subsidies that risk undermining the level playing field.

Moreover, authorisation for an existing service can even be suspended or withdrawn if a regulatory body establishes on the basis of an objective economic analysis that the service has compromised the economic equilibrium of an existing public service contract. Your Rapporteur is hopeful that these measures are sufficient and proportionate to make sure that PSCs are adequately protected while the market is opened for competition.

To further alleviate the concerns, Your Rapporteur has introduced an additional provision whereby Member States may limit the right of access to a national regular service if, among other things, it comes into contact with an urban or suburban centre or if the proposed service is performing the same public passenger transport service on a particular route or network where a competent authority has granted a public service operator an exclusive right in return for the discharge of public service obligations within the framework of a PSC.

Ensuring fair competition and guarding against the abuse of market power

In addition to protecting the PSCs, Your Rapporteur seeks to prevent situations whereby opening up of the relevant market leads to other unwanted outcomes. The proposed regulatory body should ensure there is a level playing field and fair competition amongst the carriers. That includes prevention of the abuse of significant market power or monopoly position, including through sub-contracting, or establishment of such market conditions. Moreover, authorising authorities would be permitted to reject an application if the regulatory authority establishes that the applicant seeking to enter the market is planning to offer services below their normal value for an extended period of time, thus undermining fair competition.

Establishment requirement and the possibility for a more liberal regime

To prevent the abuse of the spirit of the proposal and to accommodate the more stringent requirements of some Member States, Your Rapporteur has also introduced a possibility for Member States to require the establishment of the carrier in the host Member State after authorisation for a national regular service has been granted.

At the same time, Your Rapporteur has clarified that those Member States that already have a more liberal regime in place are allowed to keep it. Equally, Member States that want to open up the market beyond the requirements set out in this proposal, shall be permitted to do so.

Ensuring a level playing field

With other minor, yet some very necessary amendments Your Rapporteur has strived to further improve and clarify the spirit of the proposal. For instance, to ensure that private ownership is protected, Member States may exclude terminals that are owned and used solely by the terminal operator for its own road passenger transport services.

Your Rapporteur is therefore confident that the amended proposal has addressed the concerns not only of those seeking more protection, especially for the PSCs, but also those who are seeking a more liberal approach. The amended proposal strives to find the right balance between the interests of the passengers, transport companies as well as local, regional and national authorities. Your Rapporteur is optimistic that this proposal helps to move closer towards a truly single and fair bus and coach market in the European Union.