The delegations from the following Member States of the Organisation for Cooperation between Railways took part in the session:

 

Republic of Azerbaijan,

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,

Republic of Belarus,

Republic of Bulgaria,

Hungary

Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

Georgia,

Islamic Republic of Iran,

Republic of Kazakhstan,

People’s Republic of China,

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

Republic of Korea

Republic of Latvia,

Republic of Lithuania

Republic of Moldova,

Mongolia

Republic of Poland

Russian Federation,

Romania,

Slovak Republic,

Republic of Uzbekistan

Ukraine,

Czech Republic,

Republic of Estonia,

as well as representatives of the European Union (EU) and the OSJD Committee.

In connection with the untimely death of State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Alexey Aristov at the end of December 2018, who chaired the previous five sessions and made an invaluable contribution to the development of OSJD and the elaboration of the Convention, another additional issue was added during the sixth Session: election of the Conference Chairman.

In accordance with clause 3 of Article 7 of the Rules of Procedure of the International Conference on the adoption of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic until the selection of a new Chairperson, the session was chaired by the Secretary of the Conference – Mr. Tadeusz Szozda.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Rules of Procedure, the Conference elected the Credentials Committee, which was composed of the representatives of the delegations from the following countries: Hungary, Georgia, People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation and Ukraine. The Committee examined the credentials. Levan Tsurtsumiya, Chairman of the Credentials Committee, reported on the available credentials complying with Article 2 of the Rules with 24 delegations of the OSJD Member States, based on which, in accordance with Article 11 of the Rules, Tadeusz Szozda, who chaired the Conference, stated its validity.

The Session participants took note that the representative from the European Union had credentials signed by the President of the European Commission.

To prepare the Minutes of Session VI, the Conference set up an editorial group composed of the representatives from delegations of Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Latvia, Russian Federation and Ukraine.

The conference adopted the agenda of session VI, which included the following items:

- Election of the Conference Chairman;

- Revision of the quorum of the participants present at a Session, based on Article 11 of the Rules of Procedure of the International Conference on adoption of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic in view of the change of the number of participants of OSJD member states;

- Organisation of work of the Working Group established at Session IV of the Conference;

- Discussion of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic;

- Date and agenda of Session VII of the Conference.

Two candidates were nominated for the post of the Conference Chairman: Mr. Andriy Galushchak from Ukraine and Mr. Vladimir Tokarev from the Russian Federation. As a result of the voting in accordance with Article 7 “Election of the Chairman and his Deputies” and paragraph 4 of Article 15 “Decision Making” of the Rules, the Conference elected Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Vladimir Tokarev to the post of the Conference Chairman, following which Tadeusz Szozda passed him over the functions of the Conference Chairman, having occupied the post of the Conference Secretary.

In view of accession of the Republic of Korea to the OSJD, the Session considered the issue of revision of quorum in accordance with Article 11 of the Rules. During the discussion of this issue, the delegation of the People’s Republic of China proposed to set up the quorum of the Conference at the level of two thirds of the participants of the OSJD member states, but this proposal was not accepted.

The Conference reviewed and adopted the text of Articles 50-60, 62-64 of the draft Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic.

In cases where the proposals to amend and/or supplement the text of the Convention did not find the required number of votes, the text of the draft Convention was adopted as it was referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 1 “Scope of Application” of the Rules.

The provisions of Articles 50-60, 62-64 of the draft Convention were adopted after lengthy discussions, during which many of them were voted on.

Following the discussion of Article 61 it was decided to consider it at Session VII.

The Conference adopted the provisional agenda for Session VII as follows:

1. Adoption of the agenda for Session VII.
2. Discussion of the text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic.
3. Discussion of the issues of proofreading throughout the main text of the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic (in case work on adoption of the main text has been completed) as well as work on the texts of Annexes to the Convention on Direct International Railway Traffic.
4. Date and agenda of Session VIII of the Conference.

When considering the third item of the provisional agenda of Session VII, the Conference participants discussed the possibility of instructing the Conference Secretary to request the Ministerial Conference to decide on the preparation by the OSJD Commission on Transport Law for work on the conformity of the provisions of annexes to the Convention: “General Provisions on the Agreement for the Carriage of Goods in International Railway Traffic”, “General Provisions on the Agreement for the Carriage of Passengers in International Railway Traffic” with the current SMGS and SMPS Agreements.

The Conference has decided to hold its Session VII from 18 till 22 November, or from 25 till 29 November 2019 in the Republic of Poland, as well as approved the provisional date for Session VIII of the Conference from 9 till 13 March or from 16 till 20 March 2020 in the Republic of Poland.