Annual Report
2022 was another milestone in the promotion and development of uniform railway law, particularly with regard to strengthening OTIF’s cooperation with stakeholders.
This part of the Annual Report presents the work of the OTIF Secretariat’s Legal Department and the work of the ad hoc Committee on Legal Affairs and International Cooperation.
In 2021, some important institutional changes took place in the area of legal issues and international cooperation. The ad hoc Committee on Cooperation and the Working Group of Legal Experts held their fourth and last sessions in April 2021.
The mandate of the ad hoc Committee on Cooperation ended in September 2021 and the Working Group of Legal Experts was dissolved in October 2021 as a result of a decision to merge the activities of these two subsidiary organs and to entrust their respective mandates to a new ad hoc Committee on Legal Affairs and International Cooperation.
The Vilnius Protocol was adopted by OTIF’s 5th General Assembly in 1999 and was a major turning point for OTIF and the development of international railway law.
Twenty years after the Protocol was adopt- ed, OTIF and stakeholders celebrated this anniversary and started discussions on the new challenges to be faced in terms of railway
regulations.
There is now increasing interest in developing the railways. It is time to set up regional networks and develop new land routes on a global scale, such as the Silk Roads project. On these new routes, rail transport must become a real backbone for mobility.
As a result of its flexibility and the modern character of its legal rules, COTIF can become the common software for this railway globalisation.
There is now increasing interest in developing the railway mode be- tween Europe and Asia. The problem is that the current networks have inherited the set-up of the large national monopolies.
It is now time to establish regional networks and develop new land routes on a global scale, such as the Silk Road project. As a result of its flex- ibility and the modern character of its legal rules, COTIF provides the common software for this railway globalisation.
At the end of 2013, OTIF had 49 Member States. Pakistan has been a new member of OTIF since 1 September 2013.
In accordance with Article 42 § 1 of COTIF, the Government of Pakistan has declared that for the time being, Pakistan will only apply Appendix B to the Convention, i.e. the Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM).
The 2012 Annual Report shows that despite a period marked by the absence of the previous Secretary General during the last four months of his term of office, the teams at OTIF carried out their various activities successfully and contributed to the Organisation’s standing.
This was particularly the case with the technical section, which renewed links with the European Commission and ERA, and whose work on the UTP wagons is of great importance in the development of freight transport activities.
Following the efforts concluded in 2010 to prepare the Organisation and its Secretariat for their future tasks and to finalise developments to this end in terms of organisation, staff and finances, 2011 was a turning point in which new perspectives started to appear on the horizon.
