On 18 June 2013, Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Transport, received Christian Kern, CEO of the ÖBB-Holding AG (Austrian Federal Railways Company), and Marc Descheemaecker, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SNCB (Belgian National Railways Company), Bert Meerstadt, CEO of NS (Netherlands National Railways Company), and Mikael Aro, CEO and President of VR Group Ltd (Finnish National Railways Company), in Brussels. Talks focused on the important priorities for the European rail network in the years to come: financing of rail infrastructure, rail freight corridors, asset management, interoperability and safety.