{"id":3228,"date":"2026-04-29T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=3228"},"modified":"2026-04-29T19:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:51:00","slug":"konstantinos-kyranakis-new-era-for-trains-in-europe-single-standards-and-less-bureaucracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=3228","title":{"rendered":"Konstantinos Kyranakis: &#8220;New era&#8221; for trains in Europe &#8211; Single standards and less bureaucracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Speed up the <b>certification<\/b> and licensing procedures<\/b> of <b>rail systems in the EU<\/b>, with uniform <b>technical specifications ETCS\/ERTMS<\/b> and without <b>reducing the level of safety<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>As <b>Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Konstantinos Kyranakis<\/b> highlights at the <b>European institutional level the need for a radical acceleration<\/b> and <b>simplification of the certification<\/b>, <b>approval<\/b> and licensing framework for <b>rail systems, at a time when European Union<\/b> is attempting to <b>enhance the interoperability<\/b> of networks through <b>technologies such as ETCS and ERTMS,<\/b> noting <b>that the existing complexity, repetitive national procedures and extensive bureaucracy<\/b> slow down the rapid adoption of <b>critical safety systems<\/b> and make it <b>necessary to establish uniform European technical<\/b> specifications<\/b>, to recognise already <b>certified systems between Member States<\/b> and to strengthen <b>the role of European institutions<\/b>, with a view to a more <b>efficient<\/b>, coherent and <b>high-level safe rail network across the EU<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, <b>on the initiative of Konstantinos Kyranakis<\/b>, the issue of accelerating<\/b> the <b>development of interoperable<\/b> rail <b>technologies<\/b> was raised at the <b>Informal Council of Transport Ministers<\/b> of the <b>EU.<\/p>\n<h3>Europe needs a simpler, faster and more predictable framework<\/h3>\n<p>During the discussion, there was a common recognition by the European Commission and member states that the current operation of the approval, testing, certification and authorisation procedures remains highly bureaucratic, complex and time-consuming. It is indicative that, according to official EU figures, only 17% of the European Union&#8217;s rail network currently has an active and operational ETCS. <\/p>\n<p>In his intervention, Mr Kyranakis stressed that Europe needs a simpler, faster and more predictable framework for the installation, testing, certification and licensing of these systems, without any compromise on safety. <\/p>\n<h3> The position of the Greek side <\/h3>\n<p>The Greek side supported three main directions: the avoidance of duplication of procedures for systems that have already been certified and proven safe in another Member State, the establishment of common and stable technical specifications for ERTMS, subsystems and rolling stock, and the strengthening of the role of the European Railway Agency in the approval and licensing procedures, in cooperation with the Member States and national safety authorities. <\/p>\n<p>Kyranakis stressed that the simplification of procedures does not work against safety, but in favour of it, as it allows for the faster installation and operational operation of critical European safety systems on the rail network. <\/p>\n<p>The Greek minister said: &#8220;Our position is clear: Europe needs a simpler and faster licensing framework, without any compromise on safety. When a system is safe and proven to work in one EU member state, the same heavy, bureaucratic process cannot be required from scratch to put it into operation in another part of the European Railways. This position was widely accepted by almost all EU Transport Ministers.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speed up the certification and authorisation procedures for railway systems in the EU, with uniform technical specifications for ETCS\/ERTMS and without &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}