Regulation (EC) N o 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 1191/69 and 1107/70

• Published date: 03 December 2007
• Official Gazette Publication: Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 315, 03 de diciembre de 2007,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 315, 03 décembre 2007

02007R1370 — EN — 24.12.2017 — 001.001

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►B REGULATION (EC) No 1370/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 October 2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 1191/69 and 1107/70 (OJ L 315 3.12.2007, p. 1)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	REGULATION (EU) 2016/2338 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 14 December 2016	L 354	22	23.12.2016

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▼B

REGULATION (EC) No 1370/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 23 October 2007

on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 1191/69 and 1107/70

Article 1

Purpose and scope

1. The purpose of this Regulation is to define how, in accordance with the rules of Community law, competent authorities may act in the field of public passenger transport to guarantee the provision of services of general interest which are among other things more numerous, safer, of a higher quality or provided at lower cost than those that market forces alone would have allowed.

To this end, this Regulation lays down the conditions under which competent authorities, when imposing or contracting for public service obligations, compensate public service operators for costs incurred and/or grant exclusive rights in return for the discharge of public service obligations.

2. This Regulation shall apply to the national and international operation of public passenger transport services by rail and other track-based modes and by road, except for services which are operated mainly for their historical interest or their tourist value. Member States may apply this Regulation to public passenger transport by inland waterways and, without prejudice to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3577/92 of 7 December 1992 applying the principle of freedom to provide services to maritime transport within Member States (maritime cabotage) (1), national sea waters.

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Subject to agreement of the competent authorities of the Member States on whose territory the services are provided, public service obligations may concern public transport services at cross-border level, including those covering local and regional transport needs.

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3. This Regulation shall not apply to public works concessions within the meaning of Article 1(3)(a) of Directive 2004/17/EC or of Article 1(3) of Directive 2004/18/EC.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation:

(a)‘public passenger transport’ means passenger transport services of general economic interest provided to the public on a non-discriminatory and continuous basis;

(b)‘competent authority’ means any public authority or group of public authorities of a Member State or Member States which has the power to intervene in public passenger transport in a given geographical area or any body vested with such authority;

(c)‘competent local authority’ means any competent authority whose geographical area of competence is not national;

(d)‘public service operator’ means any public or private undertaking or group of such undertakings which operates public passenger transport services or any public body which provides public passenger transport services;

(e)‘public service obligation’ means a requirement defined or determined by a competent authority in order to ensure public passenger transport services in the general interest that an operator, if it were considering its own commercial interests, would not assume or would not assume to the same extent or under the same conditions without reward;

(f)‘exclusive right’ means a right entitling a public service operator to operate certain public passenger transport services on a particular route or network or in a particular area, to the exclusion of any other such operator;

(g)‘public service compensation’ means any benefit, particularly financial, granted directly or indirectly by a competent authority from public funds during the period of implementation of a public service obligation or in connection with that period;

(h)‘direct award’ means the award of a public service contract to a given public service operator without any prior competitive tendering procedure;

(i)‘public service contract’ means one or more legally binding acts confirming the agreement between a competent authority and a public service operator to entrust to that public service operator the management and operation of public passenger transport services subject to public service obligations; depending on the law of the Member State, the contract may also consist of a decision adopted by the competent authority:

—taking the form of an individual legislative or regulatory act, or

—containing conditions under which the competent authority itself provides the services or entrusts the provision of such services to an internal operator;

(j)‘internal operator’ means a legally distinct entity over which a competent local authority, or in the case of a group of authorities at least one competent local authority, exercises control similar to that exercised over its own departments;

(k)‘value’ means the value of a service, a route, a public service contract, or a compensation scheme for public passenger transport corresponding to the total remuneration, before VAT, of the public service operator or operators, including compensation of whatever kind paid by the public authorities and revenue from the sale of tickets which is not repaid to the competent authority in question;

(l)‘general rule’ means a measure which applies without discrimination to all public passenger transport services of the same type in a given geographical area for which a competent authority is responsible;

(m)‘integrated public passenger transport services’ means interconnected transport services within a determined geographical area with a single information service, ticketing scheme and timetable;

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(aa)‘public passenger transport services by rail’ means public passenger transport by rail, excluding passenger transport by other track-based modes, such as metros or tramways.

Article 2a

Specification of public service obligations

1. The competent authority shall lay down specifications for public service obligations in the provision of public passenger transport services and the scope of their application in accordance with Article 2(e). This includes the possibility to group cost-covering services with non-cost-covering services.

When laying down those specifications and the scope of their application, the competent authority shall duly respect the principle of proportionality, in accordance with Union law.

The specifications shall be consistent with the policy objectives stated in public transport policy documents in the Member States.

The content and format of public transport policy documents and the procedures for consulting relevant stakeholders shall be determined in accordance with national law.

2. The specifications of the public service obligations and the related compensation of the net financial effect of public service obligations shall:

(a)achieve the objectives of the public transport policy in a cost-effective manner; and

(b)financially sustain the provision of public passenger transport, in accordance with the requirements laid down in the public transport policy in the long term.

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Article 3

Public service contracts and general rules

1. Where a competent authority decides to grant the operator of its choice an exclusive right and/or compensation, of whatever nature, in return for the discharge of public service obligations, it shall do so within the framework of a public service contract.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, public service obligations which aim at establishing maximum tariffs for all passengers or for certain categories of passenger may also be the subject of general rules. In accordance with the principles set out in Articles 4 and 6 and in the Annex, the competent authority shall compensate the public service operators for the net financial effect, positive or negative, on costs incurred and revenues generated in complying with the tariff obligations established through general rules in a way that prevents overcompensation. This shall be so notwithstanding the right of competent authorities to integrate public service obligations establishing maximum tariffs in public service contracts.

3. Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 73, 86, 87 and 88 of the Treaty, Member States may exclude from the scope of this Regulation general rules on financial compensation for public service obligations which establish maximum tariffs for pupils, students, apprentices and persons with reduced mobility. These general rules shall be notified in accordance with Article 88 of the Treaty. Any such notification shall contain complete information on the measure and, in particular, details on the calculation method.

Article 4

Mandatory content of public service contracts and general rules

1. Public service contracts and general rules shall:

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(a)clearly set out the public service obligations, defined in this Regulation and specified in accordance with Article 2a thereof, with which the public service operator is to comply, and the geographical areas concerned;

(b)establish in advance, in an objective and transparent manner:

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