RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2023 :: RMTnews
RESISTING RAIL PRIVATISATION IN EUROPE PROTESTS: European rail unions held an international protest in the French city of Lyons earlier this year against the EU drive to privatise their railways
European Commission pushes for public transport privatisation without a democratic mandate Transport workers and unions across Europe have been protesting against European Commission attempts to enforce the ‘liberalisation’ of public transport without involving the Council and the European Parliament. The European Commission wants to make competitive tendering compulsory in a desperate bid for more privatisation of public transport services. The unelected body is trying to complete the implementation of the 4th EU Railway Package, a set of six legislative texts adopted in 2016 to establish a single market for rail services – the Single European Railway Area. The implementation of the package effectively gives the EU’s railway agency powers over rail services in member states and ‘competition’ in
16
passenger traffic will be compulsory. As a result, any democratic evaluations will become meaningless because elected governments will lose decision-making powers over them. The package also removes national jurisdiction over railway safety regulations, which could also jeopardise the safety of passengers and other rail services. Currently, under EU regulation on Public Service Obligation (PSO) local authorities can choose to award rail and road public service directly to their own operators. The European Commission is trying to change this by adopting guidelines to the regulation which requires no Council or European Parliament involvement. In other words, the European
Commission is trying to reinvent the rules without any democratic process whatsoever. The European Transport Workers Federation (ETF) said in a statement that more privatisation in rail and road transport by the EU was creating poorer working conditions, less staff, and more expensive tickets whilst defeating the purpose of public transport to serve the public interest and make transport accessible to all. ETF President Frank Moreels said that such neoliberal policies had seriously hit railway workers and their trade unions and delivered a worse service for passengers. He said that these policies had reduced the number of rail networks and created a shift towards casual and precarious work resulting in:
• a decline in safety • job losses due to driveronly operations and line closures • an increase in subcontracting within the railway sector ETF general secretary Livia Spera also stressed that transport workers were fed up with the current state of the transport industry, which was already too liberalised. “The sector suffers from a shortage of workers, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find people willing to work in transport. Yet, the European Commission continues to disregard the voices of the workers who power the industry,” she said. Livia Spera warned protesters at a demonstration in Lille earlier this year that workers may not even show up at EU elections in 2024 to vote
