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CIT General Assembly 2025
The CIT General Assembly was held on 20 November 2025 in Bern and was chaired by CIT Chair Maria Sack (DB AG) and CIT Vice-Chair Maria Urbanska (PKP). The CIT Chair welcomed all CIT members participating in-person at the UPU premises in Bern and online via Zoom, as well as the members of the CIT Executive Committee, who were all present in Bern. The OTIF Secretary General, Aleksandr Kuzmenko, Fabrice Setta (UIC), Adriano Di Curzio and Ethem Pekin (CER), Vegard Kristoffersen (ENTUR) and Jonathan Chatfield (Head of Railway Strategy & Policy, RDG) were also present as observers. The Chair informed the General Assembly that CIT Secretary-General Gilles Mugnier had unexpectedly passed away on 10 May 2025. A minute’s silence was held in remembrance of Gilles Mugnier.
Part A of the meeting was dedicated to CIT statutory matters. The Deputy Secretary-General gave a comprehensive report on the balance sheet and profit-and-loss account for 2024. The 2024 profit-and-loss account had closed with a surplus, which would be provisionally transferred to the reserve fund. After the presentation of the accounts for 2024 and the budget for 2025, the General Assembly confirmed the new timescale for the distribution of the reserve fund surplus.
The Chair explained the call for candidates and selection procedure for a new CIT Secretary-General. The General Assembly elected Dr Erik Evtimov as new CIT Secretary-General by acclamation and the Executive Committee congratulated him on his election. He assumes office on 1 January 2026.
In addition to its members' core business of freight and passenger transport and the use of railway infrastructure, CIT is also active in areas such as the transport of dangerous goods and the management of ticket sales for passengers. In 2025 CIT successfully implemented its work programme as planned despite the very difficult circumstances. A summary of the main points and all other CIT projects and events since the last General Assembly was presented in Part B of the General Assembly. These tasks will then be coordinated for the preparation and implementation of the new CIT Strategy 2026 – 2030.
The situation of the railways has evolved since last year, with passenger and freight transport developing differently. Freight transport is increasingly under inflationary pressure. The global financial situation in the rail sector appears to be continuing to deteriorate due to the difficult economic situation in all industrial and service sectors. The year 2025 was challenging with the European Commission's work on revising the TAF/TAP TSI regulations and the Capacity Regulation. CIT plays an important role in this by working with the other organisations in the sector, such as CER and UIC, to provide added value and support.
In Part C, Ethem Pekin (Head of Economic Policy and Sustainability, CER) presented to the General Assembly the study on the economic footprint of rail transport in Europe conducted together with Oxford Economics:https://www.cer.be/cer-reports/oxford-economics-study-the-economic-footprint-of-railway-transport.
On behalf of CIT members and Executive Committee, the CIT Chair and Vice-Chair thanked the entire CIT team for their hard work during 2025 which benefited all CIT members. The next CIT General Assembly will be held in Bern on 26 November 2026.
