Brussels, 12/06/2015 (Agence Europe): Meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 11 June, the transport ministers failed to make any notable progress on the controversial issue of the revision of the European legislation on the rights of airline passengers. The main stumbling blocks are the compensation threshold and the dispute between the United Kingdom and Spain over the sovereignty of Gibraltar.
“I bitterly regret that after more than 40 meetings and rounds of talks, the states have still not managed to agree”, said the Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, who went on: “I urge the member states to overcome their difficulties and to find solutions as soon as possible”.
Two major issues have so far prevented any significant progress. The first stumbling block is the threshold for compensation entitlement to be triggered in the event of delay, in line with the case-law returned by the Court of Justice of the EU in cases C-407/04 and C-432/07 (Sturgeon affair - see EUROPE 10023).
In a legislative proposal of 2013, the Commission put forward a single threshold for compensation laid down at five hours of delay for intra-European flights, instead of three hours, in order to avoid a massive increase in flights being cancelled. Additionally, it hoped to lay down a threshold of nine hours for flights outside Europe or distances of between 3,500 and 6,000 km or 12 hours for flights outside the EU of 6,000 km and above. However, certain member states, such as Spain, felt that this change was a step backwards for passenger rights and wanted to leave the threshold at three hours. Athens agreed, calling for the Commission to reduce the thresholds to 3/7/9 hours respectively. “The Commission's 5/9/12 thresholds are well balanced. Three hours is not enough”, states the British delegation. The Irish delegation shares this view, considering that provision of this kind would “spark an avalanche of cancellations”. “What we need is the right balance between consumer protection and the interests of the industry”, commented Anrijs Matîss, minister of transport and president for the last time of the 'Transport, Telecommunications and Energy' Council.
Gibraltar is a thorn in the side of the political plank, as it is in many aviation dossiers, such as the 'Single European Sky' (see EUROPE 11236). Madrid is calling for Gibraltar airport not to be covered by European legislation until the question of the sovereignty of this tiny British territory, claimed by Spain for more than three centuries, has been resolved. “We need to find a solution to the Gibraltar issue”, said Rome during the public debate.
In June 2013, the Commission presented its proposal to revise airline passengers' rights, to “clarify the rules which apply if a flight is delayed or cancelled (…), to make sure that European airlines are carrying out their activities on a liberalised market under harmonised conditions”. Since then, the European Parliament adopted its position at first reading in February. It is now for the member states to reach a consensus.
However, “the dossier has made no substantial progress and the environment of the negotiations won't be any different under our Presidency”, was the cautious prediction of Luxembourg minister François Bausch, with the Grand Duchy preparing to take over the Presidency of the Council. In his view, “the legislator should not have delegated to justice”. (Pascal Hansens)