The Transport Council achieved a political agreement on the draft directive on a single European railway area. In addition the European Ministers reached a partial agreement on a draft regulation on tachographs uses in road transport and a general approach on the update of the directive on the minimum level of training for seafarers.

The meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Ministers ended with the achievement of a political agreement on the European railway area. This agreement confirms the general approach reached in June 2011 on the Commission's proposal presented in September 2010. The aim of this draft directive is to simplify, clarify and modernise the rules for the railway sector so as to increase competition, strengthen market supervision and improve conditions for investment. The Council will already now endeavour to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament in order to seek agreement on a final text to be adopted jointly by both institutions at second reading.

Additionally, the European Transport Ministers agreed a partial general approach on a draft regulation on tachographs used in road transport. The aim of the new draft legislation, which was proposed in July this year, is to make fraud more difficult and reduce the administrative burden by making full use of new technologies and introducing a number of new regulatory measures. The tachograph is used in road transport to monitor compliance with the rules on driving time and rest periods, in order to ensure road safety, decent working conditions for drivers and fair competition between transport businesses. With regard to the partial general approach, this does not cover the proposed provision on merging the driving licence with the driver card used with the tachograph.

Among other issues discussed at the Council meeting, Ministers also reached a general approach on the update of the directive on the minimum level of training for seafarers, with a view to aligning EU legislation with recent amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STWC). Furthermore, the Council agreed a general approach on the recast of the 2002 regulation on the phasing-in of double-hull requirements for single-hull oil tankers. Transport ministers also took stock of the state of play on new guidelines defining a long-term strategy for the development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).