31.12.2008 Official Journal of the European Union L 354/51 REGULATION (EC) No 1335/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 December 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 establishing a European Railway Agency (Agency Regulation) (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EURO- PEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 71(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (%), Whereas: (1) Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (%) of 29 April 2004 established a Euro- pean Railway Agency, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agency’, to make a technical contribution to creating a European railway area without frontiers. Following devel- opments in Community legislation on rail interoperability and safety and market developments and on the basis of the experience gained in operating the Agency and the relationship between the Agency and the Commission, cer- tain amendments need to be made to that Regulation, and in particular certain tasks need to be added. (2)  National rules are to be notified to the Commission both in accordance with Directive 2008/57 [EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the interoperability of the rail system within the Community (recast) (%), (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Railway Interop- erability Directive’), and Directive 2004/49/EC of the Euro- pean Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community’s railways (Railway Safety Direc- tive) (°). The two sets of rules should therefore be (1) OJ C 256, 27.10.2007, p. 39. (?) Opinion of the European Parliament of 29 November 2007 (O] C 297 E, 20.11.2008, p. 140), Council Common Position of 3 March 2008 (O] C 93 E, 15.4.2008, p. 1) and Position of the Euro- pean Parliament of 9 July 2008 (not yet published in the Official Jour- nal). Council Decision of 1 December 2008. (%) OJL 164, 30.4.2004, p. 1. Corrected version in OJ L 220, 21.6.2004, p. 3. (# OJL 191, 18.7.2008, p. 1. (°) OJL 164, 30.4.2004, p. 44. Corrected version in OJ L 220, 21.6.2004, p. 16. examined in order to assess, in particular, if they are com- patible with the common safety methods and the techni- cal specifications for interoperability (TSIs) in force, as well as if they enable the common safety targets in force to be achieved. In order to facilitate the procedure for authorising the plac- ing in service of vehicles which do not conform to the rel- evant TSIs, all the technical and safety rules in force in each Member State should be classified into three groups and the results of this classification should be presented in a reference document. The Agency is therefore required to draw up a draft for creating and updating this document by cross-referencing the national rules for each of the rel- evant technical parameters and by providing ad hoc tech- nical opinions on specific aspects of cross-accepting projects. After reviewing the list of the parameters, the Agency may recommend that it be modified. Due to its legal competence and its high level of technical expertise, the Agency is the entity which should provide clarification on complex matters emerging from the activ- ity in the sector. Therefore, in the context of the proce- dures authorising the placing in service of vehicles, it should be possible to request the Agency to issue technical opinions in the case of a negative decision by a national safety authority or on the equivalence of national rules for the technical parameters established in the Railway Interoperability Directive. It should be possible to request the opinion of the Agency on urgent modifications to TSIs. Under Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 881/2004, the Agency may monitor the quality of the work of the bodies notified by the Member States. A study conducted by the Commission has shown that there is much scope for inter- pretation of the criteria to be applied for notifying these bodies. Without prejudice to the Member States’ responsi- bility with regard to the bodies that they choose to notify and the checks that they make to ensure that these criteria have been met, it is important to assess the impact of such differences in interpretation and to check that they do not cause difficulties with regard to the mutual recognition of conformity certificates and the EC declaration of verifica- tion. Therefore, at the request of the Commission, the