Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union were able to reach a number of agreements on the revised Air Passenger Rights Directive on the evening of Wednesday 19 November. However, they have not yet tackled the thorniest and most political issues.
Meeting for the second time (see EUROPE 13747/5), the negotiators reached a provisional political agreement on six of the seven outstanding political issues, all subject to technical clarifications. According to several European sources contacted the following day, these include tarmac delays, the right to refuse re-routing, with the option of a refund, assistance, downgrading of passengers and contingency plans.
With regard to the downgrading, they agreed on the calculation of the reimbursement, based on the price of the ticket “to make this calculation objective”, according to a diplomatic source. The thresholds sought by the European Parliament were also adopted. On contingency plans, they agreed that this should only concern major airports with traffic of four million passengers or more.
However, the negotiators were unable to reach agreement on passengers with special needs, i.e. passengers with reduced mobility. “The European Parliament’s strong position leaves little room for negotiation”, commented another European source.
The most political and controversial points - namely the thresholds for compensation for delays and the scope of application (see EUROPE 13732/8) - will be addressed at the next trilogue meeting on Monday 1 December. The second source stressed that, despite the goodwill of the negotiators, the discussions will be very difficult, torn between the Parliament’s lack of flexibility and the Council’s narrow majority on its negotiating position. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)