The negotiation meeting (trilogue) between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the ‘Single European Sky’ was blocked on Thursday 16 November because the Spanish Presidency of the Council did not have a mandate (see EUROPE 13194/7). A dozen Member States have rejected the Presidency’s proposals, leaving it no room for manoeuvre.
“You could call this meeting an ‘exploratory trilogue’”, quipped a European source contacted by EUROPE after the meeting. “The Presidency could not budge from the original approach, so the European Parliament was not satisfied”, the source said.
At the meeting of Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) the previous day, twelve Member States, “the most conservative delegations”, presented an informal document (‘non-paper’) rejecting the Presidency’s mandate proposals. The Commission then tried to incorporate some of the points mentioned in the document, but the Member States maintained their refusal. According to the source, these countries want national authorities to retain supervisory powers, thus maintaining the status quo.
“In my opinion, there is no serious reason to refuse the compromises agreed with the Spanish Presidency”, commented Marian-Jean Marinescu MEP (EPP, Romanian), rapporteur for the European Parliament, contacted by EUROPE. “We worked hard and I think we have reached many compromises and I don’t see why we can’t move forward”, he added.
Mr Marinescu proposed to the Council that the Parliament send it a complete compromise proposal for the following dossiers: revision of the ‘Single European Sky’ and a regulation on the ability of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to act as a Performance Review Body (PRB). Together with the other European Parliament rapporteur, Bogusław Liberadzki (S&D, Polish), he put forward a compromise proposal on the PRB (see EUROPE 13262/12).
“From what we understand, this is the most difficult part of the dossier, and Parliament could agree to compromise on the PRB”, he explained.
According to the European source, the Presidency could organise a “second” fourth trilogue next week, during the plenary session in Strasbourg, provided it obtains a mandate. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)