European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, has responded to concerns about non-compliance with fire safety standards on EU trains, signalling potential tightening of oversight through a revision of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) founding regulation. In a written answer to a parliamentary question from MEP Elena Kountoura (The Left), Tzitzikostas clarified that Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) apply only under certain maintenance conditions, with no direct evidence of non-compliant trains currently in circulation. He underscored the existing regulatory framework mandating maintenance management and categorisation of modifications, hinting at conformity checks and authorisations by national safety authorities (NSAs) and ERA. Policy-wise, the Commissioner indicated a revision proposal of Regulation (EU) 2016/796 to bolster ERA’s support to NSAs, aiming to address performance deficiencies detected in railway supervision. This answer sets the tone for balancing current legal frameworks with a future push toward more robust railway safety enforcement, with an institutional follow-up expected within upcoming Commission initiatives.
This development follows a period of heightened attention to rail safety and passenger rights across EU institutions. On 14 April 2026, Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič emphasised EU rail safety oversight after the Adamuz accident in Spain, confirming that the Spanish national investigation body CIAF leads the probe under Directive (EU) 2016/798, while balancing national and EU roles. Days earlier, on 8 April 2026, the European Parliament TRAN committee debated Swiss unilateral rail safety measures and EU road safety progress, with Christian Schmidt (DG MOVE) and MEP Kai Tegethoff clashing over the pace of improvements. The Swiss wheelset rule, introduced in 2025, raised concerns over disruption to a vital freight corridor, with multiple political groups questioning its proportionality and legality.
On 16 April 2026, Commissioner Tzitzikostas himself clarified rail delay compensation rules, rejecting a centralised EU-wide portal and maintaining the current system where passengers seek redress directly from railway operators, as per EU Regulation 2021/782. This clarification followed a period of operational harmonisation debates. Meanwhile, industry voices have been active: on 15 April 2026, six leading European industry associations called for a revision of the Combined Transport Directive, citing outdated definitions and fragmented national approaches that hamper multimodal solutions. On 10 April 2026, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) urged the forthcoming long-term EU budget to invest in rail infrastructure, framing rail as essential to Europe’s energy independence and strategic autonomy, and calling for doubling freight and tripling high-speed rail traffic.
Broader transport ambitions were outlined on 5 November 2025, when Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto proposed a €550 billion high-speed rail investment plan to complete and interconnect Europe’s network by 2040, including implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) and legislation for seamless cross-border ticketing by 2026. Tzitzikostas’s latest answer on fire safety thus fits into a wider context of reinforcing rail’s role in sustainable transport while addressing specific safety and oversight gaps, with stakeholders—national safety authorities, ERA, rail operators, and passengers—set to experience the impacts of enhanced supervision and administrative adjustments.
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