13.6.2009 Official Journal of the European Union L 150/11 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 5 June 2009 on the adoption of a common safety method for assessment of achievement of safety targets, as referred to in Article 6 of Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document number C(2009) 4246) (Text with EEA relevance) (2009/460/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community’s railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infra- structure and safety certification (Railway Safety Directive) (1) and in particular Article 6(1) thereof, Having regard to the recommendation of the European Railway Agency on the common safety methods for calculation, assessment and enforcement to be used in the framework of the first set of common safety targets, delivered to the Commission on 29 April 2008, Whereas: (1)  In accordance with Directive 2004/49/EC, common safety targets (CSTs) and common safety methods (CSMs) should be gradually introduced to ensure that a high level of safety is maintained and, when and where necessary and reasonably practicable, improved. (2)  Pursuant to Article 6(1) of Directive 2004/49/EC, the European Commission should adopt CSMs. These should describe, amongst others and in accordance with Article 6(3) of Directive 2004/49/EC, how the safety level and achievement of CSTs are assessed. (3)  In order to ensure that the current safety performance of the railway system is not reduced in any Member State, () OJ L 164, 30.4.2004, p. 44; corrected by O] L 220, 21.6.2004, p. 16. the first set of CSTs should be introduced. It should be based on an examination of existing targets and safety performance of railway systems in the Member States. Furthermore, in order to maintain the current safety performance of the railway system, a harmonisation, in terms of risk acceptance criteria, of safety levels for the whole national railway systems is necessary. The compliance with safety levels should be monitored in the different Member States. In order to establish the first set of CSTs in compliance with Article 7(3) of Directive 2004/49/EC, it is necessary to quantitatively identify the current safety performance of railway systems in Member States by means of national reference values (NRVs), to be calculated and utilised by the European Railway Agency (the Agency) and the Commission. These NRVs should be calculated only in 2009, with a view to developing the first set of CSTs, and in 2011, with a view to developing the second set of CSTs. In order to ensure consistency of the NRVs and to avoid undue burden, light rail systems, functionally separate networks, privately owned railway infrastructures solely used by the owner, heritage, museum and tourist railways should be exempted from this Decision. Due to the lack of harmonised and reliable data on safety performance of parts of the railway system referred to in Article 7(4) of Directive 2004/49/EC, it has been ascer- tained that the development of the first set of CSTs, expressed in risk acceptance criteria for specified cate- gories of individuals and for society as a whole, is at the moment feasible only for the railway system in its entirety and not for its parts.