Article 4 — Strategic guidance and national requirements

1. Member States may provide the infrastructure manager with strategic guidance based on the indicative railway infrastructure development strategies referred to in Article 8(1) of Directive 2012/34/EU. That strategic guidance, which shall be consistent with this Regulation, shall respect the operational responsibilities of the infrastructure manager, enabling them to optimise use of the network and coordinate effectively the attribution of capacity for cross-border traffic. It shall be provided in a timely manner, in order for infrastructure managers to be able to follow the deadlines set out in Annex I to this Regulation, and may cover or contain in particular: (a) general objectives of national rail policy relevant for strategic capacity planning within the scope of this Regulation; (b) an outlook on the development of railway infrastructure, taking into account relevant plans and strategies at national or regional level and the work plans of the European Transport Corridors; (c) general requirements and guidelines as regards the use of railway infrastructure capacity, which the infrastructure manager shall take into account in strategic capacity planning, in particular in relation to highly utilised and congested railway infrastructure as referred to in Article 23 of this Regulation; (d) an outlook on the planned development of rail services operated under public service obligations, taking into account, where necessary, the views of the regional or local authorities involved. 2. Member States may provide that one or more of the elements of guidance referred to in this paragraph are binding by requiring infrastructure managers: (a) to implement specific timetable designs, such as integrated clock-face timetables, for both freight and passenger services; (b) to reserve minimum volumes of capacity for types of rail transport services referred to in Article 14 to reflect their transport policy priorities; (c) to pre-plan railway infrastructure capacity on certain sections and nodes, in accordance with Article 20(5); (d) to reflect national transport policy priorities by means of national parameters in the methodology for capacity partitioning in accordance with Article 27 and by means of national parameters in the methodology for formal conflict resolution in accordance with Article 39. Such requirements shall not commit available capacity for any element of railway infrastructure to an extent that deprives the infrastructure manager of a sufficient operational margin to fulfil all the tasks and responsibilities laid down in Article 2(4). The provision of rail transport services under specific timetable designs, such as integrated clock-face timetables, the consultation on strategic capacity planning and the allocation of capacity rights required for such services shall remain open to all applicants and railway undertakings under equitable, transparent and non-discriminatory terms. 3. Where Member States have adopted strategic guidance and requirements pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2, they shall provide them in a single document and make such a document publicly available on their website. ENIM shall make the links to those documents available on its website. 4. With a view to supporting the development of international passenger and freight rail services, Member States shall coordinate with each other in accordance with Article 56 in order to ensure consistency between the respective strategic guidance and requirements they provide pursuant to this Article. 5. Without prejudice to State aid rules, Member States may, where appropriate, grant the infrastructure manager compensation corresponding to losses of revenue related exclusively to the compliance with the strategic guidance and requirements regarding the use of railway infrastructure capacity.