Work Programme
The 2024-2025 Work Programme emphasises the continuity and resilience of OTIF. It translates political ambitions into concrete actions for international rail transport and aims at the continuous improvement and development of legislation, safety, and the efficiency of rail transport.
At its 15th session, the General Assembly adopted a ‘Decision on the monitoring and assessment of legal instruments’ (OTIF-21002- AG 15). This Decision reconfirms the Organisation’s commitment effectively to meet its aim of promoting, improving and facilitating, in all respects, international traffic by rail.
OTIF was created by international law and is bound by the general rules of international law. The activities of the Organisation and its organs must be guided by the rule of law, particularly the following principles: legality, legal certainty, equality, transparency, proportionality.
In addition to general principles of law, OTIF’s law-making activities should be governed by the principles of efficiency and effectiveness.
History has determined that the rail sector does not benefit from the global regulations that other sectors have developed, such as telecommunications and aviation. Nevertheless, when the Organisation was founded in 1893, Russia was one of the founding members, indicating that the original intention was that COTIF should be applied in both Europe and Asia.
In the years to come, OTIF should strengthen its position as a forum for uniform international railway law.
The development of rail transport over long and very long distances is one of the conditions for achieving the objectives of the battle against global warming. It is also a vector for trade and development between the countries of central Asia, inland China and Europe. With its structuring capacity, the railways are in fact the preferred means of integrating into the global market all the countries that the future Silk Road will transit.
Bolstered by the accession of the European Union, OTIF today offers its Member States a bridge to carry out international rail transport under uniform conditions.
The first work programme after a change of management is always a particularly important moment. OTIF has the doubly unique feature of having a very broad field of competence and Member States which have very diverse structures and interests.
Above all else, I should like to reaffirm OTIF’s role as a gateway. Thanks to flexible law which is adaptable to the different constraints of its Member States, the Organisation is able to offer a common framework and genuine interface law which enables the development of rail traffic in a unified framework.
