EU 2026–2029:  Reducing Administrative Burden

25. Reducing administrative burden and streamlining reporting requirements in transport

Legal act / status of legislative procedure: Professional Driver Directive (2022/2561); Implementing Regulation (2023/1693) on the interoperability of the “traffic operation and traffic management” subsystem of the railway system; Delegated Regulation (2017/1926) on the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services.

I. General remarks:

Against the backdrop of geopolitical changes, the European Commission has, in our view, made an urgently needed shift towards greater competitiveness and regulatory simplification. With the omnibus legislative packages to simplify sustainability legislation (CSRD, CSDDD, CBAM, taxonomy), the Commission has reaffirmed its simplification ambitions, aiming to reduce bureaucracy costs for companies in general by at least 25% and for SMEs by at least 35% by 2029, including in the area of sustainability legislation. We welcome this objective, but point out that the transport and mobility sector continues to face extensive bureaucratic burdens in other areas.

II. Specific proposals:

We propose the following measures to reduce administrative burden:

Improved training: combining the driving licence and initial qualification (Professional Driver Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2561))
Since the majority of lorry and bus drivers are required to meet initial qualification requirements, it makes sense to combine the initial qualification with training and testing for the driving licence. We propose explicitly creating the possibility in future to integrate driving licence training and initial qualification more closely.

Avoid repetition in continuing training by gradually reducing the duration of continuing training from the second training cycle onwards, as drivers have already gained more experience (Professional Driver Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2561))
With regard to the organisation of continuing training over the five-year period, drivers and companies should have the possibility to decide freely, according to their individual circumstances, how continuing training is distributed within the five-year period.

The mandatory completion of the same continuing training content every five years is often regarded as unnecessary. We therefore propose gradually reducing the duration of continuing training from the second training cycle onwards, as drivers have already gained more experience.

Interoperability of the “traffic operation and traffic management” subsystem of the railway system (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1693)
The rules and route book should contain only the absolutely necessary rules and information in order to limit the administrative burden on railway undertakings. We reject the view that train drivers must know every single route and therefore have to drive it regularly for practice. It is entirely sufficient, and also common practice, for train drivers to be familiar with the system logic, including signals and similar elements. In this respect, clarification in the form of more specific EU requirements would be desirable.

EU-wide multimodal travel information services (proposal amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926)
The additional requirements for historical data (Article 3(1), Article 4(1) and (3), and Article 6(1)) should be reduced to the necessary minimum, since all data to be made available must be physically stored somewhere. This places a burden on storage capacity, which is generally provided by cloud providers. In order to reduce the burden on data and service providers as well as on the environment, we argue that “raw data” should not have to be provided in this area.

We do not see any objective necessity for the inclusion of occupancy data; there is no recital from which the motivation could be derived. In the past, occupancy data were introduced hastily in response to the pandemic, while data protection aspects were pushed into the background.

26. Freedom of choice in rail transport under the PSO Regulation

Legal act / status of legislative procedure: On 26 June 2023, the European Commission published new interpretative guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road, known as the PSO Regulation (Public Service Obligation Regulation), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2016/2338.

I. General remarks on PSO:

The PSO Regulation defines how competent authorities may act in compliance with Union law in the field of public passenger transport in order to ensure the provision of “services of general interest” (see Article 1(1) of the PSO Regulation).

With regard to the type of award, the PSO Regulation clearly grants users of the law discretion at national level by generally providing for several award options, for example competitive tendering or various forms of direct award. In Austria, the federal government, the provinces and the transport associations primarily apply the rules on direct awards under the PSO Regulation, which subsequently also affects transport undertakings and their services. The deliberately created possibilities for direct awards are used successfully in numerous Member States. In the railway sector, it is striking that those countries that have chosen the path of direct award occupy a leading position in terms of punctuality, customer satisfaction and rail kilometres travelled per inhabitant.

In its guidelines, however, the European Commission calls for competitive procedures to be prioritised over direct awards of public service contracts for passenger rail transport. The Commission’s guidelines therefore contradict the PSO Regulation. This obvious discrepancy between the regulation and the interpretative guidelines has been assessed by independent experts, namely Attorney at law Dr. Walter Schwartz together Attorney at law Mag. Jacqueline Kachlyr-Poppe, and by European law experts University Professor Konrad Lachmayer together with University Professor Jean-Philippe Derosie:

• The interpretative guidelines restrict the possibility of direct award and therefore contradict the text of the regulation and, at the same time, the intention of the legislator.
• The interpretative guidelines have no legally binding character; they merely reflect the legal view of the European Commission. The interpretative guidelines therefore do not create any new legal norms. In particular, this is not a case of authentic interpretation.
• It is for the Member States to define their own objectives for minimum requirements for services of general economic interest, for example environmental protection, mobility for persons with disabilities or consumer protection.
• The ex-ante needs assessment formulated by the European Commission cannot be derived from the PSO Regulation.
• The provision stating that Article 5(4a) of the PSO Regulation should be interpreted restrictively should not be followed.

The Council rejected the Commission proposal according to which passenger transport services should only be authorised if the award was both appropriate and proportionate. For reasons of democratic policy, the rule of law and the separation of powers, we reject the attempt to enforce the 2013 legislative initiative on the PSO Regulation through these interpretative guidelines against the will of the actual legislative bodies.

II. Specific proposal on PSO:

The choice in rail transport between direct award and competitive tendering must be maintained.
One advantage of direct awards is that they help create new and denser train connections quickly. Tenders, by contrast, take a long time and delay the urgently needed mobility transition. Experience with liberalised railways in other countries shows overall economic and ecological downward trends. Tendering does not make railways more efficient; rather, it increases the risk of poorer services and higher ticket prices for passengers.

27. Revision of the EU public procurement directives

Legal act / status of legislative procedure: Directive (EU) 2014/24 on public procurement and Directive (EU) 2014/25 on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors.

I. General remarks:

The European Commission is currently evaluating Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU as well as the Concessions Directive 2014/23/EU; the public consultation was completed in March 2025, the revision of the 2014 procurement directives is ongoing, and a new legal framework has been announced for the second quarter of 2026 according to the Commission work programme. From the perspective of the transport industry, the ongoing revision of the EU public procurement directives is an important opportunity to make public procurement more practical and more strongly geared towards security of supply and strategic resilience. In doing so, attention must be paid to achieving a balance between European preference (“Made in Europe” criteria) and flexibility in procurement, as well as to harmonising the multitude of existing requirements.

II. Specific proposals:

Continuation of in-house awards in their current form
In-house awards are an indispensable instrument for ensuring services of general interest and enable efficient service provision with long-term investments. In-house contracts are subject to strict requirements regarding market conformity and price appropriateness, as well as to review by courts of audit and internal audit bodies.

Necessary balance between European preference (“Made in Europe” criteria) and flexibility in procurement
The general preference for European products and services is welcome. In detail, however, it must be ensured that “Made in Europe” criteria are designed in such a way that a sufficient number of bidders remains available in the energy and mobility sector and that tenders remain practicable. If European products are to be preferred, a clear and simple rule is also needed, together with an uncomplicated way to clearly identify “Made in Europe” products.

Harmonisation of the multitude of existing requirements
The public procurement legal framework has become increasingly unclear. In addition to the procurement directives, numerous sector-specific regulations, for example the Net Zero Industry Act, affect procurement law. This fragmentation makes it more difficult to apply the law. Procurement-law requirements (“how to buy”) should in future be regulated exclusively in the procurement directives in order to guarantee clarity for contracting authorities and bidders. Further requirements concerning the product itself can continue to be dealt with in separate legal acts. Integrating all “what to buy” requirements into the procurement directive would expand the legal act disproportionately.

No exclusion of bidders on purely formal grounds
Often, only a limited number of interested companies is available. Exclusion due to minor formal shortcomings, for example in suitability documents, exacerbates this problem. Reducing documentation requirements and allowing greater scope when examining tenders would promote competition. Formal deficiencies should be easier to correct, and necessary subcontractors should be capable of being nominated subsequently.

Greater flexibility in taking additional requirements into account
The integration of environmental, social and innovative criteria is welcome in principle, but must not result in overregulation. In sectors with already few providers, contracting authorities are in practice sometimes already tied to individual manufacturers. A flexible rule is therefore needed, allowing exceptions where the number of tenders is already limited.

28. Easing regional burdens – resident tariffs

Legal act / status of legislative procedure: Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of 28 February 2018 on measures against unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment (Geo-blocking Regulation).

I. General remarks:

In principle, the objectives of the Geo-blocking Regulation, namely ensuring the smooth functioning of the internal market, are shared. In terms of its intention, the Geo-blocking Regulation is directed primarily against technical default settings that prevent customers from one Member State from accessing a website that the provider has primarily set up for customers from another state.

However, its application in areas outside electronic commerce should be called into question. Clearly defined guidelines are lacking for the admissibility of objectively justified differentiation, in particular for regional requirements and measures tailored to specific target and customer groups.

Especially in connection with regionally rooted services, for example in the tourism industry, the lack of differentiation regarding objective justifications and exemption provisions leads to considerable legal uncertainty in relation to the necessary consideration of regional requirements.

Particularly in structurally weak rural regions that are highly dependent on tourism, winter tourism in particular generates added value that enables prosperity and prevents outmigration. At the same time, the local population is often confronted with increased traffic burdens and higher prices in certain areas of everyday life. In order to enable balanced regional solutions, such as resident tariffs, legal certainty must be ensured.

II. Specific proposal:

Enabling resident tariffs
In order to create a balanced and acceptable arrangement, the Geo-blocking Regulation should allow objective differentiation in the provision of tourism services, for example resident tariffs. The European Commission initiative launched in February 2025 to evaluate the effectiveness of the Geo-blocking Regulation offers an opportunity to address this.

29. Continuing the success model of night trains

I. General remarks:

In the European Climate Law, the European Union has set itself ambitious CO_₂ reduction targets, particularly for the transport sector. Night trains make an important contribution to achieving these climate targets, as they offer an environmentally friendly option for long-distance transport and stand out due to their high energy efficiency and low land use.

In addition, night trains appeal to a broad target group and have long-term economic potential. At present, however, this potential can only be used to a limited extent. High operating costs, limited capacity utilisation, usually due to only one journey per day, and infrastructure bottlenecks across the EU make economically viable operation more difficult. Targeted measures and appropriate political and infrastructure-related framework conditions are therefore required to advance the expansion of sustainable night train connections.

II. Specific proposals:

Reducing track access charges for night trains and introducing a night segment
Track access charges account for 10–20% of total costs in night train operations. A dedicated, lower-cost price segment for night trains, coordinated across the EU, would significantly improve economic viability. This could be implemented, as in the Belgian model, through full or partial reimbursement of track access charges and traction electricity costs. At the same time, infrastructure managers should be compensated for any loss of revenue. The new EU guidelines on track access charging provide an appropriate framework for such a rule.

PSO support
New night train connections, especially cross-border ones, require high upfront investment and involve economic risks. Public service obligations (PSO), as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007, enable public support for start-up and risk financing. This option has so far been used only to a limited extent. Targeted application would facilitate the establishment of new routes, particularly on connections with high ecological benefits but still uncertain market conditions.

Improving strategic and ad-hoc capacity planning and management to reduce delays and disruptions
Delays in night train services often arise from construction works and low priority in the network, particularly during the morning peak period. Better strategic and operational capacity planning, for example through EU-wide early coordination of construction works and firmly reserved train paths, can increase reliability. In addition, clear prioritisation rules are needed that take account of the public interest in climate-friendly mobility. The ongoing EU regulation on the use of railway infrastructure capacity (COM 2023/0271) should explicitly take night trains into account in this regard.

30. Promoting innovation in rail freight transport

Legal act / status of legislative procedure: Applicable Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI); amendment proposal 2023/1695/EU of 10 August 2023.

I. General remarks:

The EU-wide harmonised introduction and promotion, or safeguarding of financing, of the European Train Control System (ETCS) is welcomed in principle because it increases the performance of rail infrastructure. However, it should be noted that existing vehicles equipped with conventional train protection systems can no longer operate, and that retrofitting to ETCS is not yet offered across the board by the rail industry and is very cost-intensive at around EUR 800,000 per vehicle.

The EU-wide introduction of digital automatic coupling is also assessed positively in principle. However, existing rolling stock and the financial resources available to companies must be taken into account.

II. Specific proposals:

Digital automatic coupling (DAC)
We call for company-compatible framework conditions in connection with the EU-wide introduction of digital automatic coupling and for securing the financing of DAC.

EU-wide harmonised ETCS train control system
Running on lines equipped with ETCS, without conventional train protection systems, is possible only if the locomotives are also fitted with the very expensive ETCS train control system. Locomotives equipped with a conventional train protection system and not ETCS-compatible cannot use this “ETCS infrastructure”. It must therefore be ensured that the exclusive use of ETCS in the Member States is introduced only in a harmonised manner, so as to allow operation with a sufficient number of available locomotives. Until then, parallel-installed train protection systems such as PZB 90 should remain switched on alongside ETCS in order to allow continued operation. Otherwise, a decline in rail freight transport is to be feared due to the high acquisition costs and lack of vehicle availability.

Funding for the transition to ETCS
Funding should be provided to enable accelerated ETCS retrofitting of existing vehicles.