UIP 56th Management Report 2005

As during the previous year, in 2005 the negotiations with UIC/ERFA to establish a new legal framework for the use of freight wagons and the EU harmonisation work to establish technical specifications (TSI) were at the heart of the UIP’s preoccupations.

The initiative set up in 2003 by the UIP to establish minimum conditions for the use of freight wagons (GCU) on the European scale led to the emergence of an agreement on a General Contract for Use (GCU) at the end of October, after intensive discussions with UIC/ERFA.

The Workshop organised by the EU on 26 October on “the priority problems of independent wagon keepers” turned out to be a strong motivation for the negotiators to resume their negotiations. In fact, on 25 October a breakthrough occurred which allowed the negotiations on the main text to be concluded almost at the end of the year. In addition, the transposition of the contract and its operation in practice were discussed. In particular the drafting of Appendix 8 of the GCU (Rules for the application and the development of the GCU) turned out to be a source of divergent interests whose harmonisation took a large part of the first half of 2006.

The 2005 Management report is available in French, German and English.