Session XLIX of the OSJD Ministerial Conference was held from 15 till 18 June 2021 at the OSJD Committee in Warsaw in a videoconferencing mode. The session was attended by the representatives of the delegations of the members of the Ministerial Conference from 22 OSJD member countries, as follows:

Republic of Azerbaijan,

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,

Republic of Belarus,

Republic of Bulgaria,

Hungary,

Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

Georgia,

Republic of Kazakhstan,

People’s Republic of China,

Republic of Korea,

Republic of Latvia,

Republic of Lithuania,

Republic of Moldova,

Mongolia,

Republic of Poland,

Russian Federation,

Slovak Republic,

Republic of Tajikistan,

Republic of Uzbekistan,

Ukraine,

Czech Republic,

Republic of Estonia.

The session was also attended by the representatives of: UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF), Eurasian Economic Commission (EAEC), Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the EC (DG MOVE), International Rail Transport Committee (CIT), Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM.

Opening the plenary meeting of the Ministerial Conference session, Chairman of the OSJD Committee Mirosław Antonowicz congratulated all the participants on the 65ͭ ͪ anniversary of the Organisation and noted the enormous role that it has played and continues to play in the development of international railway traffic.

Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Bittel also congratulated everyone on this significant date, noting the great role of OSJD in the development of railway transport. He also stressed that from the very moment of the Organisation’s foundation, Poland has been the seat of its executive body – the OSJD Committee – throughout the entire period.

Vladimir Morozov, Head of the Byelorussian Railway noted that the Organisation has played and continues to play an important role in ensuring international railway links in the Eurasian space, and even despite the difficult economic situation following the pandemic, it does not slow down its activities.

Mihály Bárány, Deputy Secretary of State for European Union and International Relations of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, stressed that Hungary has been a member of OSJD since the Organisation’s establishment, and its representative currently holds a high and responsible position of the Secretary of the Committee. On behalf of the Hungarian delegation, he expressed full support for the OSJD activities both at the level of CGD and the Ministerial Conference.

Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications of the Republic of Bulgaria Neli Andreeva drew attention to the fact that OSJD was established 65 years ago in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, and since then the number of member countries in the Organisation has increased from 10 to 29. She noted that over the decades that have passed since that time, OSJD has performed a great deal of work in the area of convergence of transport law regimes, creation of railway transport corridors, unification of technical standards, etc.

Sandeep Raj Jain, Economic Affairs Officer, Transport Facilitation & Logistics Section, UNESCAP Transport Division, congratulated OSJD on its 65th anniversary and noted the great role of interaction between both organisations in the development and harmonization of the legal framework for international railway and intermodal traffic and ensuring sustainable mobility in the Asia-Pacific region.

OTIF Secretary General Wolfgang Küpper also expressed his congratulations to OSJD, having emphasised the great role of OSJD in the development of cooperation with OTIF towards harmonisation and convergence of the two legal regimes in railway traffic.

Within the framework of the agenda, the following items were considered:

- Report on OSJD Activities for 2020;

- progress of work of the OSJD Commission on Transport Policy and Development Strategy and the OSJD Commission on Transport Law for 2020;

- information of the OSJD Committee Chairman on the progress of work carried out by the UNECE “Towards a unified railway law in the Pan-European region and in the Euro-Asian transport corridors”;

- progress of work of the AWG on vocational education/training in the field of railway transport;

- OSJD Work Programme for 2022 and subsequent years;

- financial issues, including the Budget of the OSJD Committee (final – for 2021, preliminary – for 2022);

- draft provisional agenda, venue and date of session L of the OSJD Ministerial Conference.

The OSJD Ministerial Meeting noted the implementation of the OSJD Work Programme and Work Plans for 2020 and approved the Report on OSJD Activities for 2020, the OSJD Work Programme for 2022 and subsequent years and the OSJD Committee Budget.

In the field of transport policy and development strategy, the Ministerial Conference adopted the following decisions:

- to approve the results of work of the OSJD Commission on Transport Policy and Devel- opment Strategy for 2020;

- to take into account the information “On the progress of the implementation of the Comprehensive Plans for the improvement of transportation and development of OSJD Railway Transport Corridors Nos. 1-13 until 2020” and on the indicators of OSJD railway transport corridors Nos. 1-13 for the period of 2017-2019;

- to take note of the information about the approval of:

• OSJD Leaflet O+R 302 “Regulations for the formation and completion of the Comprehensive Plan for the improvement of transportation and development of the OSJD railway transport corridor” with effect from 16 January 2021,
• OSJD Leaflet O+R 303 “Regulations for the formation and filling-in of the technical and operational passport of the OSJD railway transport corridor” with effect from 16 January 2021;

- the OSJD member countries shall provide the OSJD Commission on Transport Policy and Development Strategy with an up-to-date information on the ongoing structural reforms of railway transport in their countries for the preparation of a draft Information Booklet and its publication in 2022;

- to cancel OSJD Leaflet О 905/2 “Rules for data processing to be included into the OSJD international bank of documentation (OSJD ADB)”;

- to consider the feasibility of creating a management (coordination) mechanism for OSJD railway transport corridors Nos. 1-13 at the final meeting in 2021.

In the field of transport law, the following

decisions have been taken:

- to approve the results of work of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law for 2020;

- to continue the work aimed at improving the SMPS and Service Instruction (SI) to SMPS, SMGS and SI to SMGS;

- the AWG on the document of title shall continue its work on the creation of the document of title;

- the AWG on the issues of railway and waterway traffic shall continue its work on the preparation of the draft amendments and additions to the SMGS, aimed at resolving the issues related to the carriage of goods on the railway sections connected by the water sections, by using a uniform consignment note;

- the AWG in the field of the Rules for the Transportation of Dangerous Goods shall continue its work on updating Annex 2 to SMGS “Rules for the transportation of dangerous goods”;

- to approve OSJD Leaflet O+R 401 “Stowage and securing of goods in large-capacity containers”, 1st edition, with effect from 1 July 2021;

- the Ad Hoc Working Group of the OSJD Commission on Transport Law on the development of technical regulations for stowing and securing of goods shall continue the development of provisions for the technical regulations for the stowing and securing of goods in wagons with a track gauge of 1520 mm;

- to carry out work in 2022 to improve Annex 3 “Technical regulations for stowing and securing of goods” to the SMGS Agreement, to ensure the development of topics basing on the “Procedure for the preparation and development of topics with special-purpose funding” (A-12);

- to continue the work carried out by the OSJD Commission on Transport Law aimed at improving Annex 6 “CIM/SMGS Consignment Note Guide” to SMGS within the framework of the “CIM/SMGS transport and legal harmonisation project”;

- to take note of the information on the coming into effect of the amendments and additions to the SMPS Agreement and SI to SMPS from 1 May 2021, as well as from 1 July 2021 – of the amendments and additions to the SMGS Agreement and SI to SMGS.

When considering the progress of work carried out under the UNECE auspices “Towards unified railway law in the Pan-European region and in the Euro-Asian transport corridors”, the Ministerial Conference took the following decision:

- to take note of the information of the OSJD Committee on the progress of the work carried out in this area;

- to recommend to the concerned OSJD member countries to take part in the work of the UNECE Group of Experts “Towards unified railway law”;

- the OSJD Committee shall continue to participate in the work of the UNECE Group of Experts “Towards unified railway law” and hold a coordination meeting of the concerned OSJD member countries before its next session (November 2021) in order to agree on the position defying further steps towards developing a unified railway law.

When considering the progress of work of the AWG on vocational education/training in the field of railway transport, it was decided to:

- approve the Progress Report of the AWG on vocational education/training in the field of railway transport for March 2020 – March 2021;

- approve the Procedure for accreditation in the OSJD Academy of educational organisations and institutions providing training, with effect from 1 August 2021;

- approve the Procedure for the development and implementation of standard OSJD training programmes with effect from 1 August 2021;

- approve the amendments and additions made to the draft OSJD Leaflet R 305/1 “OSJD Glossary” on the issues of education and training of personnel in the field of railway transport;

- the AWG shall continue the development of draft OSJD documents related to the functioning of the OSJD Academy, with their subsequent approval in accordance with the established procedure;

- continue the work:

• for the development of standard training programmes of a recommendatory nature, advanced training and personnel training in the application of regulatory legal documents in the field of transport,
• for conducting pilot training projects in the field of training and education of personnel with the invitation of concerned organisations,
• for holding conferences, seminars and workshops in the field of personnel training and education; - prepare job qualification specifications for the positions of the Director of the OSJD Academy and his/her deputies.

The Ministerial Meeting adopted indicative issues to be included into the provisional agenda of session L of the OSJD Ministerial Conference and took a decision to hold the jubilee session from 7 till 10 June 2022.