Brussels, 06/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 30 September, the European Parliament's transport committee will decide on whether or not to approve (through comitology) the proposal from the European Commission and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on the revision of flight time limits.
After a coordinators' meeting on Wednesday 4 September, the Greens and GUE tabled a resolution, however, recommending rejection of revision. This is their recommendation for the MEPs' vote at the plenary. The dozen or so MEPs behind this resolution want the Commission to withdraw its proposal as they argue that it is not based on sufficient scientific evidence for the risk of fatigue - and therefore for danger to air safety - to be ignored. This is an argument long held by pilots and their crew. More precisely, the MEPs want the length of time for flight service to be 10 hours maximum (as opposed to 11 hours maximum in the Commission's proposal) and, when combined with standby time, to be 18 hours maximum. The MEPs also recommend abandoning the comitology procedure on this thorny issue and using the co-decision procedure. In the view of the head of the European Cockpit Association, “it's a good sign that MEPs also consider this legislation to be wrong at the current time”.
The leader of the European Parliament's transport committee, Brian Simpson (S&D, UK), announced the timetable during the meeting of transport committee members on Thursday 5 September. He said that the committee should, at least, make clear how the agreements with the social partners will not be affected by this revision, and how the European Parliament will be involved in any legislative revision on this issue in the future. (MD/transl.fl)