CHAPTER II

DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF RAILWAY SAFETY

Common safety targets (‘CSTs’)
Article 7
1
The CSTs shall establish the minimum safety levels to be reached by the system as a whole, and where feasible, by different parts of the rail system in each Member State and in the Union. The CSTs may be expressed in terms of risk acceptance criteria or target safety levels and shall take into consideration, in particular:
a
individual risks relating to passengers, staff including employees or contractors, level crossing users and others, and, without prejudice to existing national and international liability rules, individual risks relating to trespassers;
b
societal risks.
2
The Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, give a mandate to the Agency to draft CSTs and amendments thereto and to make the relevant recommendations to the Commission, on the basis of a clear justification of the need for a new or amended CST and its impact on existing rules. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 28(3). Where the committee delivers no opinion, the Commission shall not adopt the draft implementing act, and the third subparagraph of Article 5(4) of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.
3
During the exercise of the mandate referred to in paragraph 2, the committee shall be kept systematically and regularly informed by the Agency or by the Commission of the preparatory work on the CSTs. During that work, the Commission may address to the Agency any useful recommendations concerning the CSTs and a cost-benefit analysis. In particular, the Commission may require that alternative solutions be examined by the Agency and that the assessment of the cost and benefits of those alternative solutions be set out in the report annexed to the draft CSTs.
The Commission shall be assisted by the committee for the tasks mentioned in the first subparagraph.
4
The Commission shall examine the recommendation issued by the Agency with a view to verifying that the mandate referred to in paragraph 2 is fulfilled. Where the mandate is not fulfilled, the Commission shall request the Agency to review its recommendation by indicating the points of the mandate which were not fulfilled. For justified reasons, the Commission may decide to modify the mandate given to the Agency in accordance with the procedure set out in paragraph 2.
The Commission shall be assisted by the committee for the tasks mentioned in the first subparagraph.
5
The CSTs shall be revised at regular intervals, taking into account the global development of railway safety. The revised CSTs shall reflect any priority area where safety needs to be further improved.
6
On the basis of the recommendation issued by the Agency and after the examination referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 27 concerning the content of CSTs, and of any amendments thereto.
7
Member States shall make any necessary amendments to their national rules in order to achieve at least the CSTs, and any revised CSTs, in accordance with the implementation timetables attached to them. Those amendments shall be taken into account in the annual safety plans referred to in point (f) of Article 4(1). Member States shall notify those rules to the Commission in accordance with Article 8.