Post by Dumitru Fornea

Today, I had the privilege, in my capacity as Rapporteur of the European Economic and Social Committee, to present, together with the expert Mihai Ivascu, the Working Document for the EESC’s Opinion on the European Commission's Proposal for a Regulation on Rail Ticketing (COM(2026) 232 final). https://lnkd.in/dMEa3rgz The meeting brought together members of the EESC Working Group, representatives of the European Commission, European Parliament, railway operators, workers' organisations, passenger associations and the private rail sector, marking the official launch of the Committee's work on one of the most important legislative initiatives for the future of European rail transport. The expert hearing was opened by Reet Teder, President of the Working Group, and included presentations and discussions with: 🇪🇺 Kathrin Obst, Deputy Head of Unit C3 – Single European Rail Area, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), European Commission; 🇪🇺 Kai Tegethoff, Member of the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN); 🇪🇺 Alberto Mazzola, Executive Director of the CER | Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies; 🇪🇺 Jedde Hollewijn, Senior Policy Officer at the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF); 🇪🇺 Delphine Grandsart, Senior Researcher at the European Passengers'​ Federation (EPF); 🇪🇺 Nick Brooks, Secretary General of ALLRAIL, the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants. The hearing offered a valuable opportunity to gather the views of all major stakeholders before the EESC prepares its formal opinion on the Commission's proposal. The European Commission's proposal The proposed Regulation seeks to create a genuine European framework for rail ticketing by making it easier for passengers to search, compare and purchase domestic and cross-border rail journeys, including trips involving several railway operators. The Commission argues that today's rail ticketing market remains highly fragmented. According to the proposal, dominant incumbent railway companies often control not only rail services but also the principal online ticketing platforms, limiting the visibility of competing operators and making multi-operator journeys unnecessarily difficult for passengers to book. The Regulation therefore proposes common rules requiring railway undertakings to share ticketing products with online ticket vendors and, in certain circumstances, obliging dominant operators to make competing rail services available through their own ticketing platforms. The EESC’s Working Document: https://lnkd.in/dBA3fSZQ EESC Workers' Group EESC Civil Society Organisations’ Group EESC Employers' Group Dumitru Fornea Marco Wagener Kinga Joó Pavel Trantina Tomas Arvidsson #EURailTicketing 🇪🇺🚅🚉🛤️🚆🚄🇪🇺