At the Council of European Transport Ministers scheduled for Thursday 5 December, it is possible that the Council of the EU might reach a general approach on the revision of the regulation on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys and on the enforcement of passenger rights.
The ‘Transport - Passenger Rights’ working party, which met on Tuesday 12 November, issued a final series of comments before moving on to a higher level of decision-making, according to a European source contacted on Wednesday 13 November.
Regarding the rights of multimodal travellers, the two-step approach to accommodate a Member State’s concerns about unjustified right to reimbursement in the event of cancellation of one leg of a journey has not gained approval and will be deleted (see EUROPE 13514/26). One delegation still insists on the introduction of thresholds, but this would deviate from the current approach in sectoral regulations, where thresholds only apply to compensation and not reimbursement. Finally, the new wording on the relations with the Package Travel Directive is considered by Member States to be unclear and impractical, and is generally rejected by Member States (see EUROPE 13519/15). For the sake of closing a general approach, the previous version will be restored, but clarifications will have to be factored in during the trilogues phase. Some minor adjustments are still requested throughout the text.
With regard to the ‘Omnibus’ regulation, the Member States asked for a return to the original scheme of reimbursing tickets booked through an intermediary. The deletion of service quality standards is regretted by several Member States (see EUROPE 13511/3).
The Presidency proposed strengthening the Council’s position ahead of negotiations with the European Parliament and keeping the reduced version, with quality standards for people with reduced mobility only, which has gained sufficient support.
The provisions relating to legal representatives of third state intermediaries have raised concerns on the part of several Member States, but the explanations and reassurances given by the EU Council Legal Service should be sufficient for them to accept these provisions. Finally, one delegation reiterated its demand for the regulation on waterborne passenger rights to include a time limit for cancelling a scheduled service that would be subject to compensation claims. Another delegation supported this request and two others remained open to consider it. The European Commission is firmly opposed to this.
The Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) will prepare for the EU Council meeting on Wednesday 27 November. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)