The revision of the regulation on air passenger rights will return to the table during interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue) on Monday 20 April. A first meeting of the Conciliation Committee will then take place, marking the start of a decisive process.
As a reminder, on 24 March the Council of the EU formally rejected the European Parliament’s position at second reading (see EUROPE 13835/30), triggering a conciliation procedure. The co-legislators must find common ground before the procedure is completed at the end of May/beginning of June.
However, this first meeting will not address the most sensitive points, namely the thresholds and amounts of compensation in the event of delays, the definition of ‘extraordinary circumstances’, which allows airlines to refuse reimbursement, and the introduction of pre-filled forms to facilitate compensation claims.
Positions held on this text remain very mixed. The airlines consider the current framework, which is largely based on the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, to be too favourable to passengers and costly for the sector. Conversely, the European Parliament is in favour of maintaining the existing rules, or even tightening them. It is proposing, for example, that elderly people should be given free hand luggage. In the EU Council, the positions of the various Member States remain disparate.
Time is of the essence, because if the text fails, it will be definitively abandoned. The Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council will have to work on a difficult compromise, guaranteeing balanced passenger rights while preserving the competitiveness of EU air carriers, which are currently coming under heavy pressure as a result of rising paraffin prices. (Original version in French by Juliette Verdes)