Approval competition
The then European Community laid the foundations for a competition in local public transport with an ordinance (1893/91) in 1991 . In Germany , the corresponding revision of the Passenger Transport Act (PBefG) came into force on January 1, 1996. Furthermore, a license , also known as a concession , must be issued for every scheduled service , which is granted for a maximum period of eight years. The term “license” is not entirely correct from a legal point of view, since the license can also be challenged during the license period. In colloquial terms, however, the term concession has become established.
In accordance with the PBefG, a distinction must be made between so-called commercial and public transport services when issuing the permit . While the concessions for public services are based on service contracts and generally have to be tendered throughout Europe, the approval competition was introduced in Germany for the award of concessions for self-commercial services within the meaning of the PBefG .
The starting point is a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court from 2003, according to which the competent licensing authorities must publish information about expiring line licenses and those about to be re-issued and make it available to interested companies. All interested companies can then submit an application for approval, which must meet generally defined criteria and content. Taking into account the criteria of the PBefG and, if applicable, the local transport plan valid for the respective region, the license is granted to the company with the best application.
However, in practice, the authorities currently only publish expiring permits in a few cases. Interested companies must therefore inquire with the authorities themselves. Approval competitions have been actively published in recent years in southern Lower Saxony, in the Cuxhaven district , in the Gütersloh district and in the Lippe district. The district of Wittenberg also carried out an approval competition for line bundles, for which public funds are made available. After the EU Commission has approved this procedure, the state of Saxony-Anhalt will adopt the “Wittenberg model” in future. Under the leadership of Saxony-Anhalt, some federal states are currently working on making this instrument more precise. It is to be expected that corresponding regulations will be included in the PBefG in the course of the implementation of the EU successor regulation 1191/69, which will probably come into force in 2010.