Source: European Parliament
In its communication of 18 February 2021[1], the Commission undertook ‘to explore options for an EU strategy for export credits’.
After a feasibility study[2] of May 2023, produced for the Commission by independent consultants, the Commission started work in three areas: encouraging a whole-of-government approach to external financial tools; exploring a potential EU financial tool to work with export credit agencies (ECAs) in support of EU policy priorities; and promoting sustainability.
In addition, agreement was reached at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2023 to modernise the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits (‘the Arrangement’), streamlining the rules so that ECAs can better support competitiveness goals, and incentivising ECAs to scale-up their support for zero and low-emission investments, including rail.
Regarding the Luxembourg Rail Protocol, the premium levels set by ECAs are determined according to the Arrangement. Protocols under the Cape Town Convention (CTC) regarding the recovery of assets in the case of default, can play a role in those procedures, as it does in the case of aircraft.
However, the Luxembourg Rail Protocol of the CTC offers less important practical possibility to recover the value of the asset due to important technical differences between air and rail transport, in particular in relation to interoperability and accessibility .
Furthermore there are currently few contracting parties to the Luxembourg protocol. The Commission will nevertheless follow further developments.
- [1] Trade Policy Review — An Open, Sustainable and Assertive Trade Policy: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52021DC0066
- [2] Paul Mudde, Henri d’Ambrières, Arnaud Dornel, Federico Bilder, Feasibility study on an EU strategy on export credits, Final report: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/4aa03d2a-08cc-11ee-b12e-01aa75ed71a1