Relationship between the European Union Railway Transport Law and the Railway Protocol

Abstract

The Railway Protocol, which aims at harmonizing the registration and recognition of security interests in railway mobile equipment crossing borders in the near future, and the European Railway Transport Law are rooted in a legal harmonization willingness. This concerns both railway transport legal systems on a continental scale, the Organization for Co-operation between Railways and the Intergovernmental Organization for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), which cooperate and create international rules for railway transport at an intergovernmental level, and the European Union – with the important work of the European Commission, which is involved in terms of the law-making process, in particular due to its adhesion to the OTIF and to the future Railway Protocol. In this framework, where lawmakers participate in the development of specific international conventions and purport to ease railway transport activity, the OTIF, as the future Secretariat of the Supervisory Authority of the International Registry for the Railway Protocol, is ready for success.