2nd Joint Statement – UIC, UIP, ERFA and CER on responsibility of Wagon Keeper for maintenance

The associations:

• Welcomed that both TRAN and the Council in their decisions acknowledge the important role of the keeper of rail freight wagons as well as the need to define the term “keeper” in the Safety Directive and to clearly identify the keeper in the national vehicle registers.
• Further welcomed that TRAN voted unanimously in favour of the sole responsibility of the keeper for the maintenance and in favour of a mandatory certification of the maintenance management of the keeper.
• And strongly objected, for the reasons repeated below, to the proposal of the Council to introduce an additional “entity in charge of maintenance” in the Safety Directive which is not in every case identical with the wagon keeper.

The texts of the Interoperability Directive, voted in first reading by the European Parliament on December 11th, and of the Safety Directive proposed by the Council and presently subject to the tripartite conciliation procedure, compel the associations to re-issue the position that they already formulated against the notion of “entity in charge of maintenance” and against the voluntary nature of the certification of that maintenance, as advocated by the Council’s text.