Nicosia, 07/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - Further liberalisation of ground-handling services, called for by the Commission, was rejected by the European Parliament's transport and tourism committee (TRAN) on Tuesday 6 November. The committee put to the vote the three draft reports relating to the “airports package” - the Commission's proposal revising current European legislation on ground-handling services; take-off and landing slots; and harmful noise from aeroplanes. The legislative package aims to help reduce the capacity problems that around 20 European airports could soon face.
Stop to liberalisation on the ground. The striking result of this triple vote is the TRAN committee's rejection of further liberalisation of ground-handling services (like baggage handling, refuelling and anti-freeze services) - services that are operated on the ground by independent suppliers. The Commission particularly wanted to introduce a third operator to large airports of more than 5 million passengers per year in order to break the monopolistic situation of the two operators that are currently in competition.
However the TRAN committee did not want this - although by a narrow majority (22 votes against, 20 votes in favour). In the Socialists' view this is a good victory. Knut Fleckenstein (S&D, Germany) explained that the MEPs “rejected the proposal because the additional provider would open the doors to social dumping and would further damage working conditions”. His colleague, Said El Khadroui (S&D, Belgium), added that “further liberalisation would be made only at the expense of passengers under the form of reduced salaries and jobs without security”. Although the Greens share their enthusiasm at the rejection of the proposal, Isabelle Durant (Greens/EFA, Belgium) nevertheless regrets that the “concerns of the airport employees regarding social standards and questions linked to employment” did not meet with any response. “The poor working conditions for the personnel on the ground undermine the quality of the services and have unacceptable consequences on safety and security”, she said. Christine de Veyrac (EPP, France) raised a discordant voice - “I regret this rejection which reflects the strong pressure of some airports not to have new competitors emerging on their market”.
Slight reform on airport slots. MEPs from the TRAN committee were scarcely more lenient to the European Commission on the second section of the airports package - the chapter dedicated to airport slots. They preferred to keep the current slot allocation system using the “use it or lose it” rule - in other words 80% use of a slot during a season in order to ensure having it renewed the following season. The MEPs reject the Commission's aim of raising this threshold to 85%, and of increasing the series of slots from 5 to 15 during the summer season, and from 5 to 10 for the winter season.
By contrast, they have subscribed to the Commission's proposal to authorise secondary trading for the re-sale of airport slots, as is already done at Heathrow Airport. They have nevertheless recommended measures to protect regional airlines. Disapproving of this, de Veyrac thinks that “Europe risks grounding airline companies for good! We are opening the way to speculation here on a sector already in the grip of fierce and unfair competition. The risk to being able to maintain regional services is real - services that are so important for opening up our lands and maintaining the competitiveness of our economic actors” (our translation throughout). This draft report, adopted by 39 votes in favour and 5 against, also strengthens the independent airport coordinator's role and replaces general costs with real financial sanctions for the airlines that do not quickly put their unused slots back into a common pot.
Noise pollution. Lastly, the MEPs approved the draft report on the third chapter concerning noise-related operating restrictions by 33 votes in favour, 10 against and one abstention. They asserted the principle of subsidiarity on the Commission's wish to supervise these restrictions established by local authorities. However, the Greens were not fully satisfied on this point and hope that the plenary vote on this - due on 11 December, and also for the other two reports - will toughen the legislation so as to better protect European citizens from noise pollution. (MD/transl.fl)