the Law court EU sentenzia that the Italian law does not assure independence of the manager of the railway infrastructure



The Law court of the European Union, with relative today's sentence to the resource introduced from the EU commission against Italy, has established that the Italian law does not allow to assure independence of the manager of national the railway infrastructure, that is of Italian Railway Net (RFI), society that also being equipped of independent legal personality takes part of the group Italian Railroads of the State (FS) that it comprises also Trenitalia, the main Italian railway enterprise. RFI is charged of the calculation of the rights of access to the net for every operator and of their collection, on the base of the fixed rates from the ministry of Infrastructures and the Transports.

Remembering that the liberalization of the rail shipment in the EU aimed to obligate the Member States to guarantee to the enterprises of the field a fair and not discriminatory access to the railway net, the judges have explained that with its resource the EU commission has asserted, first of all, than the Italian norm he does not guarantee independence of management of the manager of the infrastructure. The right of the Union, in fact, confers to the Member States the task to institute a picture for the imposition of the rights in the respect of managerial independence of the manager of the infrastructure, which it is up to determine the rights for I use it of the infrastructure and to supply to their collection. On the other hand, second the Commission, reserving itself the power to fix the level of the rights of access to the net, Italy would deprive the manager of an essential instrument of management.

The Law court of the EU has emphasized that the systems of determination of the rights of I use and of allocation of the ability they must encourage the managers to optimize I use it of the infrastructure in the within established from the Member States and that the role of the managers cannot therefore be limited to calculate the amount of the right in every case, applying a fixed formula previously by means of I decree ministerial. On the contrary, they must have of a sure degree of flexibility in the fixation of the amount of the rights.

The Court has found that the Italian norm previews that the determination of the rights, fixed together with the ministry, constraints the manager. Although the ministry exercises a mere control of legitimacy - they have specified the judges - said control would have however to be up to the regulation organism, if of species to the Office for the Regulation of Railway Services (URSF). Therefore - second the Court - the Italian law does not allow to assure independence of the manager.

With respect to I debit it moved from the EU commission to the Italian norm not to respect independence of the organism of regulation as the URSF is constituted by civil employees of the ministry and this last one continues to exercise an infuence on the group FS, that it stops Trenitalia, the Law court of the EU - rejecting the thesis of the Commission - has observed that instead, with their next legislative participations, the Italian authorities have affected the constitution of the regulation organism and have redefined its organizational and accounting autonomy progressively, in particular with the law n. 27, on March 24, 2012 that it institutes a new authority of regulation of the transports. Moreover the judges have remembered that, second the European directive, the regulation organism can be the Ministry of Transportation and that, therefore, the EU commission, in order to conclude that it is not independent, cannot insist on the single circumstance that the URSF belongs to such ministry.