Brussels, 16/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - At present, it does not appear that the Lithuanian presidency will be placing the airport package at the top of its list of priorities. Trilogue negotiations on this controversial legislative proposal had only just begun under the Irish presidency this year. The improvements sought by Commissioner Kallas for the airports will therefore not be happening.
The Lithuanian presidency takes over from Ireland this July and in the transport field it will be seeking to push forward dossiers related to airline passenger rights, the Single European Sky 2+ and SESAR. If there is still enough time and enough resources, it just might be able to look at the airport package. At this stage, the trilogue negotiations on the airport package have still not been started under the Irish Presidency given the delays incurred by the European Parliament on this issue. Given the little time left to the Presidency, discussion will not begin under its mandate. In other words, given the current situation, this very controversial dossier may find itself unceremoniously dumped under this legislative period that comes to a close in 2014, despite the already hard-fought battles on ground handling and the allocation of landing and taking off slots. According to European sources, the European Parliament is going to attempt to exert pressure on Vilnius to include the airport package in its priority list.
Another diplomatic source explained that it would be better if they could tackle separate themes in the dossier. This approach could at least allow for the regulation on noise pollution to be approved and quickly implemented. The European commissioner for transport, Siim Kallas, however, has always insisted that the airport package be tackled as a whole. One parliamentary source indicated, however, that dividing up the package did not mean that this would allow for any horse-trading to occur over the different areas in the package. (MD/trans.fl)