In all my years working in EU politics in various policy areas, I have always had this nagging sort of fear, Yes Minister style, that the officials and the lobbyists are sharper and better informed than the politicians they're working with
Yet the main railway lobby in Brussels - Community of European Railways (CER) - is an awful association. Incapable of putting together anything coherent and sensible. But no-one else, with any scale, is either. It's really grim
@jon they should hire you. Maybe working for rail lobbyists could give you more leverage than in party politics? Clearly so far they are not competing on equal footing with other lobby groups.
@KarlE No, they'd not want me, and I think I would not want them. Because rail lobbyists are actually lobbying against change. They're defeatist. They're accepting of the status quo, complicit in it. That's not an environment in which I could work.
@jon if that is so, i understand, but it's really unfortunate. Unlike fossil fuels, where I understand opposing change protects their business model, I would not consider the business model of railways very healthy at the moment.
I think your statement contradicts the fact that they open their pamphlet with moaning about the status quo. I agree with them that regulatory change is key to rebalance transport modes in preference of rail as a climate friendly option. Indeed they also have to adapt.
@jon So in practice it represents whoever appoints their boards. Finance ministers? What do the member states' finance ministers want CER to ask from the EU?
@nemobis It represents the amalgam of what SNCF, DB, Renfe etc. want, which is generally protection of their national monopolies as much as possible. And beyond that, money from the EU for infrastructure.
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