Its Executive Director European Railway Agency (ERA), Josef Doppelbauer and the Director of Land Transport of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport, Christian Schmitt, will travel to Athens tomorrow to meet with the relevant Greek authorities regarding technical support for modernization and safety improvement of the Greek railways.

The visit of Commission experts and ERA, announced the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, after the telephone conversation she had on the morning of March 6 with the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The schedule of the expert meetings in Athens has not been determined, a representative of the Commission clarifies. From the Commission’s side, Elzbieta Lukaniuk, responsible for railway safety issues at the office of the Transport Commissioner, Adina Valean, will also attend the visit to Athens.

For its part, ERA informed that the Greek Railway Safety Regulatory Authority (RAS) requested on 06/03/2023 its assistance in part of the supervisory activities of RAS.

Regarding the investigation of the causes of the accident, ERA points out: “According to the Safety Directive (EU) 2016/798, the obligation to investigate accidents belongs to the Member State (Article 20.1): “Member States shall ensure that an investigation is carried out by the investigating body referred to in Article 22 following any serious accident on the Union rail system. The aim of the research is to improve, where possible, railway safety and accident prevention’.