At the European Parliament transport committee on Thursday 11 January, MEPs expressed their support for the draft report by Markus Pieper (EPP, Germany) that, overall, goes in the direction of the European Commission’s proposal to revise regulation 868/2004, presented on 8 June last (see EUROPE 11804) in an effort to tackle unfair competitions from airlines in third countries.
At the opening of this debate, the rapporteur was keen to offer his congratulations to the European Commission, which had suggested providing the Union with effective legal instruments to prevent EU airlines being weakened by unfair trade practices from third country airlines, despite the fact that the current regulation 868/2004 has never been used. Although it contains a major part of the provisions proposed, Pieper’s report does, nevertheless, intend to introduce a number of amendments to the text, by taking into account the different interests of countries in western Europe and those in East and Central Europe, as well as a number of peripheral member states. These differences had already been revealed during the transport ministers' meetings at the Council of the European Union on 8 June and 5 December last (see EUROPE 11805, EUROPE 11920).
Therefore, if the Commission is to be able to launch an investigation when it observes uncompetitive practices or the threat of uncompetitive practices that could do damage to EU airlines, Pieper asserts that this investigation should go ahead, unless the EU's connectedness is threatened by the investigation. This possible amendment obviously resonates with the investigations presented by the representatives from peripheral European states, which are concerned about the possible negative impact of coercive instruments on the connectivity of some of their regions. This suggestion was criticised by Christine Revault d’Allonnes-Bonnefoy (S&D, France and Marie-Christine Arnautu (ENF, France) and the Commission also considers that this kind of condition would be difficult to apply.
The report also proposes to phase out the bilateral procedures in the event of an agreement between a member state and a third country before planning any Commission investigation, which the latter currently is not in favour of.
Markus Pieper would also like the European Parliament to be able to play a role in the evaluation process in the “interest of the Union" and take action. On this point he is also supported by Daniela Aiuto (EFDD, Italy), but Pavel Telička (ALDE, Czech Republic) expressed a number of doubts about the usefulness and effectiveness of this possibility.
Another amendment proposed, which the rapporteur would like to see, involves investigations being carried out by the Commission, before planning any sanctions and for this to take place over an 18-month period instead of the current two years proposed by the Commission. Fast tracking procedures was also encouraged by his colleagues, with Jacqueline Foster (ECR, United Kingdom) even preferring a 6 or 12-month deadline.
Despite these comments made, the draft report from the German MEP was welcomed by the largest political families at the European Parliament and despite the fact that the discussions at Council currently appear rather delicate, a compromise on a composition from Parliament's transport committee looks quite likely. (Original version French by Lucas Tripoteau)