The second meeting of the inter-institutional negotiations (trilogues) took place on Monday 24 September in Brussels between the representatives of the European Parliament and Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The meeting focused on the revision of the 868/2004 regulation to tackle unfair competition from the third country airlines but did not manage to obtain any compromises on the major differences.
This meeting follows a first political meeting in June that set out the negotiating framework (see EUROPE 12051). Several technical meetings have taken place since then to tackle certain specific points but the political questions have still not been resolved.
It should be recalled that this work is part of the Commission proposal for revising the text dated 8 June 2017 (see EUROPE 11804). The Council and the Parliament adopted their positions in the first six months of the year, whereas Parliament's position appears more robust and stringent (see EUROPE 11984, 12036).
Several differences were tackled during this meeting. The Parliament would therefore like that in the event of there being the threat of damages to a European airline company resulting from anti-competitive practices by a third country operator, the adoption of a provisional operational measure could be justified but the member states are opposed to this. During this meeting, MEPs said that this point was a red line for them that they could not cross and it does appear that the Council could possibly move closer to the Parliament’s position in this regard.
The member states are also said to still oppose sanctions being taken against a third country operator for violating international requirements set out in the regulation. Parliament, however, would still like to have this possibility.
Although the Council is taking a position in favour of suspending the Commission's investigation if the member states want the dispute to be treated in the procedures included in an aviation agreement to which they are party, the Parliament is opposed to this. Nonetheless, it would not be impossible for the latter to make a concession in this regard.
The respective positions still diverge with regard to what kind of authority should be responsible for adopting sanctions.
Despite the political disagreements, the different parties are expected, nonetheless, to reach a compromise during the next trilogue meetings taking place on 17 October and 20 November. The latter meeting is expected to help conclude the negotiations. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)