By participating in the public consultation launched by the European Commission on its draft new transport rules and multimodal line, which will replace the Community guidelines on State aid to railway undertakings, as well as on its new Block Exemption Regulation on transport, which ended today, the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA), an association that represents rail freight operators, has urged to limit the scope of the new security measures public support to areas of common interest in order to avoid distortions of competition and optimise the use of limited financial resources available.

"We have to think - explained the president of ERFA, Dirk Stahl, explaining the position of the association - to the role of public money in rail freight transport in a way that strategic. There is a limited amount of money that rail freight transport can make use of and we must ensure that any amount is granted thoughtfully. Besides In this way, we must also always be aware of the risks resulting from the introduction of state support in a market competitive".

ERFA agreed with the draft regulation when it highlights the opportunity to "exclude from the scope of this regulation on aid granted to firms in difficulty, since such aid should be assessed in the light of the Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and rescuing restructuring of non-financial companies in difficulty". "Restructuring aid - explained the association - they are highly distorting as they usually benefit a operator and eliminate incentives for transport companies rail freight to be financially responsible. So to rail freight transport - agreed the ERFA - normal State aid rules for the restructuring".

In addition, the ERFA considers that operating aid should be limited as - specified the association - 'the role of State aid should not be to support or incentivize declining business models. The Commission - the ERFA specified - should instead try to support the rail freight transport sector through measures of indirect support such as support for the reduction of entitlements for access to the tracks".

ERFA also welcomed the EU Commission's proposal to increase aid intensity to encourage the introduction of of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) setting the threshold of 80% of eligible costs for European Train Control System (ETCS), to the future mobile communication system for the railways (FRMCS) and Automatic Train Operation (ATO) and to digital automatic pairing. "This - he said highlighted the association - sends the signal that the ERTMS is one of the main financial priorities in terms of the funds". The ERFA has specified that it would indeed support the increase threshold to 100% as it would reduce the administrative burden for the states granting aid.