Brussels, 16/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Negotiations on the airport package will be able to continue now that the European Parliament has finally given the go-ahead to the liberalisation of ground handling services, much to the relief of European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas. On Tuesday 16 April, MEPs adopted the report on ground handling by 455 votes to 239, with 18 abstentions. In December, the report was initially voted down during the committee's re-examination procedure. The author of the report Artur Zasada (EPP, Poland) stated that he had tried to reach a compromise between very limited liberalisation on the one hand and good quality standards and stronger labour protection on the other.
Under the amended proposal, a minimum of three ground-handling operators - up from two today - should provide support services for airlines in airports handling more than 15 million passengers. The impact of this will be limited because there are no longer many examples of duopolies being operated. A list of minimum quality standards has also been added to the initial proposal. Above all, however, MEPs introduced new provisions guaranteeing protection for workers (transfer of personnel when contracts are taken over by other companies, the application of collective agreements with subcontractors). Consequently, the Socialists were able to give their support to this controversial report. The unions, however, regret that this protection has not been extended to all categories of workers.
The Greens were highly critical after adoption of the report, saying that its initial shortcomings had not been rectified. They reject the claim that liberalisation leads to better quality services and say that the social criteria do not go far enough and the legislation currently being negotiated will not provide any value-added because it will not apply to many airports.
Airports represented by ACI Europe want the key outstanding issues to be settled in second reading to ensure a realistic introduction of minimum quality levels, the role of airport coordinators and the option of contracting out.
Commissioner Kallas welcomed adoption of the report and called on the EP and Council of Ministers to begin talks speedily in order to get tangible results on the airport legislation in terms of time slots, noise and stopover conditions before the end of the year. (MD/transl.fl)