11/02/2021 (Agence Europe) – The European Parliament approved, on Wednesday 10 February, under the urgency procedure (683 votes in favour, 3 against and 4 abstentions), a draft regulation maintaining the easing of conditions for the use of airport slots for the summer of 2021 (see EUROPE 12634/10). The Member States had already given their green light to this text at the end of January (see EUROPE 12645/10). The latter should make it possible to continue to support the airlines while ensuring a gradual return to normal regulations, which have been suspended since last March. “We struck a careful balance between injecting some competition into the airport slots market and the need to protect a sector that is in pain”, the rapporteur, Dominique Riquet (Renew Europe, France), was pleased to say. The EU Council will still have to formally adopt the new rules so that they can enter into force after their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. (AC)