Luxembourg, 29/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 29 October, the Transport Council inflicted a serious blow to the European Commission. In a general orientation, it significantly watered down proposals of the reform on slots. EU transport ministers preferred to keep the current system as it is applied around the world and also largely amended the authorisation of the use of the secondary market, in a compromise achieved in a last-ditch attempt by the Cypriot presidency. The Council went against the wishes of the Commission in the third and final general approach of the airport package on airport slots shared between airlines in airports over the times for landing and taking off (see EUROPE 10718).
Rule 80/20 maintained. The Commission formulated an ambitious proposal to amend the 80% rule on the minimum use of slots during a season and had it postponed to the following year. It wanted this cap to be set at 85% and the slot series to be increased from 5 to 15 during the summer season and 5 to 10 during the winter season. The EU 27 opposed this unanimously and chose instead to maintain the current system applied internationally. The Dutch delegation summed this up by explaining that, “what we are doing at European level must remain at the level of what is done internationally”. Nonetheless, the Commission sought to point out the urgency of finding answers to the capacity problem. The Commissioner for transport, Siim Kallas said that, “the European sky is suffocating! Our proposal is a modest one”, airports that have too much traffic must be helped. He is prepared to adopt a tougher tone and is threatening to demand unanimity during the next stage and the vote on the political agreement.
Secondary market subject to conditions. Although the Council was more conciliatory with the Commission regarding the secondary market (selling on airline slots, such as Heathrow), ministers' negotiations proved to be tough going in the negotiating of a strict framework for national restrictions on this. France fought to protect regional airlines. The United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Latvia were not in favour of it and advocated uniformity for the secondary market. The Cypriot presidency put a compromise on the table that was “90% satisfactory to member states”: exceptional and justified restrictions must be approved by the European Commission in three months time. Siim Kallas said that the argument over regional connections was a false one and that the subject was not yet ready to be discussed and that the adoption of a general orientation would even be better if it were postponed. After the meeting he said on Twitter that he had been disappointed by the level of ambition demonstrated by ministers or rather their lack of ambition. (MD/transl.fl)