General Conditions for the international transport of passengers OmniBUS agreement

1. General Conditions for the international transport of passengersOmniBUS agreement

2. Agenda • Introduction • Current legal Environment • OmniBUS Agreement

3. Introduction • Switzerland non-EU-member • Land transport agreement with the European Community • Bilateral agreements (with different contents) with the Non-EU-States („Third countries“) • Main destinations for international regular bus services from Switzerland: - Balkan states: BIH, HR, MK, SRB - EU-Countries: CZ, E, I, P, PL, SK

4. Current legal environment • Europe: Large number of bilateral agreements with various contents • Between Member States of European Community and third countries: bilateral agreements • No multilateral agreement between EU and third countries • Between European Community and the Swiss Confederation: Land transport agreement • Inside European Community: Council regulations 1071/2009, 1072/2009 and 1073/2009

5. OmniBUS Agreement • Content • Potential positive effects • Consequences on the carrier-passenger legal relationships • Difficulties EU-Member States

6. Content of the OmniBUS Agreement • Definitions and administrative procedures (including administrative documents) • Authorization application and granting procedure (incl. application models) • Regulation of the access to the market and authorizations • Conditions applying to road passenger transport operators • Access to the market (subject to authorisation) • Obligations of carriers • Technical conditions applying to vehicles • Control documents (authorisation models) • Controls, penalties and cooperation • Reporting (information exchange) • Other

7. Potential Positive Effects • Harmonized and facilitated road transport regulations • Standardized legal framework, control documents and enforcement procedures • Transparency in the authorization procedures • Harmonization and simplification of application and granting procedures • Reduction of periods to consult other countries • Harmonized criteria for refusal • Harmonized maximal duration of authorizations • Coordination of controls and penalties between countries

8. Consequences on the carrier-passenger legal relationships • Obligations of carriers • Protection of passenger’s interest and rights • Increased safety • Minimum level of service quality and comfort

9. Difficulties linked to EU-Member States competencies • International regular bus service is fully harmonized at EU level • Only Commission is authorized to negotiate ratification of OmniBUS Agreement • Status quo: No mandate for the European Commission to: - extend the geographical coverage of Interbus to cover all EU neighbouring countries and regions - extend the scope of the Interbus agreement, to cover international regular lines as well • Consequence: two legal frameworks between EU-Member States and non-EU-Member States

10. Goals for 2012 • By spring 2012: Finalizing the content of the draft text of the OmniBUS Agreement • Proofreading by legal experts • Finalizing the OmniBUS Agreement in the April meeting of the UNECE SC1 working group • In autumn 2012: formally submitting the draft of OmniBUS Agreement to SC1

11. Thankyouverymuchforyourattention!