Member States should be allowed to fulfil the obligations to identify the entity in charge of maintenance and to certify it through alternative measures in the case of vehicles registered in a third country and maintained according to the law of that country, vehicles which are used on networks or lines the track gauge of which is different from that of the main rail network within the Community and for which the requirement to identify an entity in charge of maintenance is ensured alternatively by international agreements with third countries and vehicles used by heritage, museum and tourist railways or military equipment and special tr ...[+++]ansport requiring an ad hoc national safety authority permit to be delivered prior to the service.

Since the objective of this Directive, namely the development of the Community’s railways, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, given the need to ensure fair and non-discriminatory conditions of access to infrastructure and to take account of the obviously international dimension of the way in which important parts of the rail networks operate, as well as the need for coordinated transnational action, and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty.

(11) Since the objective of the action to be taken , namely the development of the Community's railways, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States given the need to ensure fair and non-discriminatory conditions of access to infrastructure and take account of the obviously international dimension of the way in which important parts of the rail networks operate, and can therefore, by reason of the need for co-ordinated transnational action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty.

See Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 of the Council on access of Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes, Council Regulation (EEC) No 3577/92 applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport within Member States, Council Regulation (EEC) No 1191/69 on action by Member States concerning the obligations inherent in the concept of a public service in transport by rail, road and inland waterway, as amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1893/91, and the amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on action by Member States concerning public service requirements and the award of p ...[+++]ublic service contracts in passenger transport by rail, road and inland waterway (COM(2002) 107 final).

– (NL) Mr President, the rapporteur who drafted a report on the development of the Community’s railways has adopted the guiding principle that for the time being, the railway industry has largely lost the competitive battle to road transport and aviation but that despite this, it is preferable to hold on to the railway industry and strengthen it.

Whereas the application to the railways sector of the principle of freedom to provide services needs to take account of the specific characteristics of the sector and to take place by stages; and whereas the principle must be applied uniformly as the Directive is implemented by the Member States, in order to avoid distortions of competition in and between the Member States.