ERA's Vision, Mission, Values and Tasks

Vision

First, the Vision. In the context of the European Green Deal, rail has the potential to become the backbone of the European multimodal transport and mobility system. This is reflected in our Vision.

We want to show that rail is part of a more global transport system. The Vision is that rail will be fully incorporated in our transport and mobility patterns due to its high environmental performance: high energy efficiency and low externalities, hence the word “sustainable”, and keeping a high level of safety performance, hence the word “safe”.

Moving from a patchwork to a network also requires to focus on the “without frontiers” as we are contributing to establish a European network of transport taking advantage of all the inherent qualities of the different modes of transport.

Mission

The Mission Statement is more railway focused as this is our business field. However, we apply the same principles as for the Vision with the key terms of sustainability and safety. Interoperability is not forgotten in this Mission Statement as the terms “without frontiers” emphasises the key role of interoperability to reach the objective of a Single European railway area.

Finally, the terms “moving Europe” indicates that the Agency is a driving the work to make sure that the railway system remains a very safe mode of transport and breaks the barriers to build a truly European network resulting in an increase of the rail modal share in the transport and mobility system. Reaching these goals will help our society to reach the ambition of a carbon neutral transport system by mid-century.

Values

• Stakeholder focus
• Ethical values commitment
• Legal compliance
• Staff involvement and development
• Everybody’s commitment to quality
• Continuous improvement
• Business continuity
• Information governance
• A culture of sustainability

Tasks

• Promote a harmonised approach to railway safety
• Devise the technical and legal framework in order to enable removing technical barriers, and acting as the system authority for ERTMS and telematics applications
• Improve accessibility and use of railway system information
• Act as the European Authority under the 4th Railway Package issuing vehicle (type) authorisations and single safety certificates, while improving the competitive position of the railway sector