Agreements & resolutions 06 Dec 2018

Progress report on the Sector Statement on boosting rail freight

In 2016 Ministers of Transport signed the so-called ‘Rotterdam Declaration’, in which they wished to express their strong support for the development of international rail freight transport and in particular for the continuation of the market-oriented development of the Rail Freight Corridors.

At the same time the railway sector adopted a sector statement with commitment to “boost international rail freight”. The Ministers expressed in the Rotterdam Declaration their wish to work together with the railway sector on the recognised priorities. Following the Rotterdam Declaration and the Sector Statement, the sector identified 10 priorities, which were presented during the Rail Freight Day in Rotterdam in December 2016. Sector organisations decided to work together on the priorities in an integrated way and set up the Sector Statement Group by July 2017 and indicated 10 rapporteurs for the identified priorities.

The Rotterdam Declaration of 2016 specifies that by 2018 the progress will be evaluated at political level. A Comprehensive Progress Report was therefore produced to set forth the findings, detailing progress on the sector priorities based on information received from the sector priority rapporteurs. It also makes an assessment of where specific attention (topics, priorities, actions) may be focused on in the next two years at sector / EU level. This comprehensive progress report is accompanied by a non-technical paper 'Outlook on the Sector Statement'. Both documents are available to download below.

The Rotterdam Declaration and Sector Statement are available here.