THE European Commission (EC) announced on July 17 its decision to refer the Netherlands to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU), the latest stage in an infringement procedure for failing to correctly apply Regulation 1370/2007/EC.
The EC believes that the Netherlands is at fault after directly awarding incumbent Netherlands Railways (NS) a nine-year concession to operate the Main Line Network (HRN), covering over 90% of total rail passenger-km in the Netherlands. The new concession began on January 1 2025.
On the basis of Regulation 1370/2007/EC, the Dutch government should have followed a competitive award procedure for the concession containing PSO services. The EC has concerns regarding to how the scope of the PSO services in the concession were determined, and considers that the Netherlands did not analyse which services could be provided by operators on a commercial basis under open-access conditions and without subsidy from the government.
“Competition in the rail market is essential to provide passengers with more attractive and innovative services at lower cost, while keeping public service tasks,” the EC says.
