Regulation (EU) 2016/796 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

CHAPTER 8 OTHER TASKS OF THE AGENCY

Article 36 Railway staff

1. The Agency shall perform the appropriate tasks relating to railway staff set out in Articles 4, 22, 23, 25, 28, 33, 34, 35 and 37 of Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(1).

2. The Commission may request the Agency to perform other tasks relating to railway staff in accordance with Directive 2007/59/EC and to issue recommendations relating to railway staff entrusted with safety tasks not covered by Directive 2007/59/EC.

3. The Agency shall consult the national authorities competent with regard to railway staff issues concerning the tasks referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2. The Agency may promote cooperation between those authorities, including by organising appropriate meetings with their representatives.

Article 37 Registers and their accessibility

1. The Agency shall set up and maintain, where relevant in cooperation with the competent national actors:

(a) the European Vehicle Register in accordance with Article 47 of Directive (EU) 2016/797;

(b) the European register of authorised vehicle types in accordance with Article 48 of Directive (EU) 2016/797.

2. The Agency shall act as the system authority for all registers and databases referred to in Directive (EU) 2016/797, Directive (EU) 2016/798 and Directive 2007/59/EC. Its actions in that capacity shall include, in particular:

(a) developing and maintaining specifications of the registers;

(b) coordinating developments in the Member States in relation to the registers;

(c) providing guidance on the registers to relevant stakeholders;

(d) addressing recommendations to the Commission regarding improvements to the specifications of existing registers, where necessary including simplification and deletion of redundant information, and any need to set up new ones, subject to a cost-benefit analysis.

3. The Agency shall make the following documents and registers provided for in Directive (EU) 2016/797 and Directive (EU) 2016/798 publicly available:

(a) the ‘EC’ declarations of verification of subsystems;

(b) the ‘EC’ declarations of conformity of interoperability constituents and ‘EC’ declarations of suitability of use of interoperability constituents;

(c) the licences issued in accordance with Article 24(8) of Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(2);

(d) the single safety certificates issued in accordance with Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2016/798;

(e) the investigation reports sent to the Agency in accordance with Article 24 of Directive (EU) 2016/798;

(f) the national rules notified to the Commission in accordance with Article 8 of Directive (EU) 2016/798 and Article 14 of Directive (EU) 2016/797;

(g) the vehicle registers referred to in Article 47 of Directive (EU) 2016/797, including via the links to relevant national registers;

(h) the infrastructure registers, including via the links to relevant national registers;

(i) the registers relating to entities in charge of maintenance and their certification bodies;

(j) the European register of authorised types of vehicles in accordance with Article 48 of Directive (EU) 2016/797;

(k) the register of requests for changes and planned changes to the ERTMS specifications, in accordance with Article 28(2) of this Regulation;

(l) the register of requests for changes and planned changes to the TSIs for telematics applications for passengers (‘TAPs’) and telematics applications for freight (‘TAFs’), in accordance with Article 23(2) of this Regulation;

(m) the register of vehicle keeper markings kept by the Agency in accordance with the TSI on operation and traffic management;

(n) the quality reports issued in accordance with Article 28(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3).

4. The practical arrangements for sending the documents referred to in paragraph 3 shall be discussed and agreed by the Commission and the Member States on the basis of a draft prepared by the Agency.

5. When the documents referred to in paragraph 3 are being sent, the bodies concerned may indicate which documents are not to be disclosed to the public for reasons of security.

6. The national authorities responsible for issuing the licences referred to in point (c) of paragraph 3 of this Article shall notify the Agency of each individual decision to issue, renew, amend or revoke those licenses, in accordance with Directive 2012/34/EU.

The national safety authorities responsible for issuing the single safety certificates referred to in point (d) of paragraph 3 of this Article shall notify the Agency, in accordance with Article 10(16) of Directive (EU) 2016/798, of each individual decision to issue, renew, amend, restrict or revoke those certificates.

7. The Agency may include any public document or link relevant to the objectives of this Regulation in the public database, taking into account applicable Union legislation on data protection.

Article 38 Cooperation among national safety authorities, investigating bodies and representative bodies

1. The Agency shall establish a network of the national safety authorities referred to in Article 16 of Directive (EU) 2016/798. The Agency shall provide the network with a secretariat.

2. The Agency shall support the investigating bodies in accordance with Article 22(7) of Directive (EU) 2016/798. To facilitate cooperation among the investigating bodies, the Agency shall provide a secretariat which shall be organised separately from the functions within the Agency relating to safety certification of railway undertakings and authorisations to place vehicles on the market.

3. The objectives of the cooperation between the bodies referred to in paragraph 1 and 2 shall be, in particular:

(a) exchange of information relating to railway safety and interoperability;

(b) promotion of good practices and dissemination of relevant knowledge;

(c) provision to the Agency of data on railway safety, in particular data relating to CSIs.

The Agency shall facilitate cooperation between the national safety authorities and national investigating bodies, in particular by holding joint meetings.

4. The Agency may establish a network of representative bodies from the railway sector acting at Union level. The list of those bodies shall be defined by the Commission. The Agency may provide the network with a secretariat. The tasks of the network shall be, in particular:

(a) exchange of information relating to railway safety and interoperability;

(b) promotion of good practices and dissemination of relevant knowledge;

(c) provision to the Agency of data on railway safety and interoperability.

5. The networks and bodies referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of this Article may comment on the draft opinions referred to in Article 10(2).

6. The Agency may establish other networks with bodies or authorities having responsibility for a part of the Union rail system.

7. The Commission may participate in the meetings of networks referred to in this Article.

Article 39 Communication and dissemination

The Agency shall communicate and disseminate to relevant stakeholders information relating to the Union framework of railway law and the development of standards and guidance in accordance with relevant communication and dissemination plans adopted by the Management Board on the basis of a draft prepared by the Agency. Those plans, based on an analysis of needs, shall be regularly updated by the Management Board.

Article 40 Research and promotion of innovation

1. The Agency shall contribute, at the Commission's request or on its own initiative subject to the procedure referred to in Article 52(4), to railway research activities at Union level, including by providing support to relevant Commission services and representative bodies. Such contributions shall be without prejudice to other research activities at Union level.

2. The Commission may entrust the Agency with the task of promoting innovation aimed at improving railway safety and interoperability, particularly the use of new information technologies, timetable information and tracking and tracing systems.

Article 41 Assistance to the Commission

The Agency shall, at the Commission's request, assist the Commission with the implementation of Union legislation aimed at enhancing the level of interoperability of railway systems and at developing a common approach to safety on the Union rail system.

Such assistance may include providing technical advice in matters requiring specific knowledge and collecting information through the networks referred to in Article 38.

Article 42 Assistance with the assessment of rail projects

Without prejudice to the derogations provided for by Article 7 of Directive (EU) 2016/797, the Agency shall, at the Commission's request, examine, from the point of view of railway safety and interoperability, any project involving the design, construction, renewal or upgrading of any subsystem in respect of which an application for Union financial support has been submitted.

Within a period to be agreed with the Commission, which may not exceed 2 months, taking into account the importance of the project and the resources available, the Agency shall give an opinion on whether the project complies with the relevant railway safety and interoperability legislation.

Article 43 Assistance to Member States, candidate countries and stakeholders

1. At the request of the Commission, Member States, candidate countries or the networks referred to in Article 38, the Agency shall engage in training and other appropriate activities concerning the application and explanation of railway safety and interoperability legislation and related products of the Agency such as registers, implementation guides and recommendations.

2. The nature and extent of the activities referred to in paragraph 1, including the possible impact on resources, shall be decided by the Management Board and included in the Agency's programming document. The costs of such assistance shall be borne by the requesting parties unless otherwise agreed.

Article 44 International relations

1. In so far as is necessary in order to achieve the objectives set out in this Regulation, and without prejudice to the respective competences of the Member States, the institutions of the Union and the European External Action Service, the Agency may strengthen coordination with international organisations on the basis of concluded agreements and develop contacts and enter into administrative arrangements with supervisory authorities, international organisations and the administrations of third countries competent in matters covered by Agency activities in order to keep up with scientific and technical developments and to ensure promotion of the Union railways legislation and standards.

2. The arrangements referred to in paragraph 1 shall not create legal obligations incumbent on the Union and its Member States, nor shall they prevent Member States and their competent authorities from concluding bilateral or multilateral arrangements with the supervisory authorities, international organisations and the administrations of third countries referred to in paragraph 1. Such bilateral or multilateral arrangements and cooperation shall be subject to prior discussion with the Commission and periodical reporting to it. The Management Board shall be duly informed of those bilateral or multilateral arrangements.

3. The Management Board shall adopt a strategy for relations with third countries or international organisations concerning matters for which the Agency is competent. That strategy shall be included in the programming document of the Agency, with a specification of associated resources.

Article 45 Coordination regarding spare parts

The Agency shall contribute to the identification of potential interchangeable spare parts to be standardised, including main interfaces to such spare parts. To that end, the Agency may establish a working party to coordinate the activities of relevant stakeholders and may establish contacts with the European standardisation bodies. The Agency shall present to the Commission appropriate recommendations.

(1)

Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the certification of train drivers operating locomotives and trains on the railway system in the Community (OJ L 315, 3.12.2007, p. 51).

(2)

Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 establishing a single European railway area (OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 32).

(3)

Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on rail passengers' rights and obligations (OJ L 315, 3.12.2007, p. 14).