Commission: Greece Referred to EU Court for Failure to Meet Single European Railway Area Directive Requirement

The European Commission announced this week that Greece had been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) – the EU’s highest court – last month for failure to meet its obligations under the Single European Railway Area Directive (2012/34/EU) and not with regard to train network safety.

The announcement came after the deadly head-on collision of two trains on Tuesday night in Tempi, Central Greece, which killed 57 passengers and left dozens injured and unaccounted for.

On February 15, the Commission stated that it had decided to refer Greece to the ECJ for failure to ensure that a contractual agreement between the national competent authority and the railway infrastructure manager had been concluded by June 16, 2015, and published within one month.

European Court of Justice.

“It is an obligation under Community law to conclude and publicize such an agreement for reasons of transparency regarding projects and the use of Community funds and is not specifically related to rail safety,” said Commission spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz during a press conference this week.

“We cannot say under what circumstances the accident could have been prevented, this is the subject of investigations, which is a national responsibility,” he said, adding that the Commission’s decision to refer to Greece to the ECJ was related to “a contractual arrangement between the competent national authority and the railway network operator”.

The European Union Agency for Railways said “the responsibility for investigation of rail accidents is with the national authorities, but both the European Commission and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) will follow the development of the situation closely. We stand ready to provide any necessary assistance.”

Commenting on the issue of EU funding allocated for the upgrade of Greece’s railway network, the Commission spokesperson said the Greek government had acknowledged the need for upgrades and had passed a law last year securing additional resources for OSE and ERGOSE. Additionally, in 2021, Greek authorities had announced 4 billion euros would go into connecting major ports with the country’s railway network setting into motion a new round of next-generation freight transport projects.

In the same direction, he said that an additional 50 million euros from the Greek budget had been allocated in December for railway maintenance from the public investment program, while the completion of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan, was set for late 2023.

Additional resources amounting to 130 million euros have been slated for three public-private partnership projects to upgrade the existing railway infrastructure.

Greek national passenger and freight train operator TrainOSE was sold off in 2017 to Italian state railway group Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) Italiane for a sum of 45 million euros and renamed Hellenic Train SA last year.

Greece’s transport minister Kostas Karamanlis handed in his resignation on Wednesday over the accident. His position was taken over by Giorgos Gerapetritis, also serving as minister of state.