Brussels, 06/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission Vice-President Mrs Loyola de Palacio confirmed having received a communication from the Italian Transport Minister Mr Bersani containing guidelines to resolve the dispute over the Malpensa airport. In practice, Mr Bersani said he was prepared to bring certain changes to the national decree, which, among others, sets the methods for the transfer of traffic from the former Linate airport (very close to the city of Milan) to the new airport of Malpensa. Thus would allocated to Linate: a daily connection with European capitals; two daily connections with the European hubs that have recorded in 1999 traffic exceeding 40 million passengers (for example Frankfurt). Through this concession to various Member States airlines, which had introduced complaints in Brussels, the Malpensa hub will not drain all the intercontinental traffic leaving Milan. At the same time, the activities in Malpensa will be intensified.
Mrs de Palacio did not discuss these guidelines that must be examined in detail, but she did feel that they go in the right direction. She hoped to reach, as fast as possible, a final decision, but she believed it difficult for this to happen before the end of the year.