Brussels, 26/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - At its meeting on Tuesday under the presidency of Spanish Transport Minister Francisco Alvarez-Cascos, the Transport Council adopted decisions on launching the Galileo project and on reducing noise pollution in airports (see previous news).
The Council also reached a political agreement for grouping into a single committee all the committees that currently deal with questions of maritime safety, as well as "conclusions" on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the field of transport, intended for the Euromed Conference on 22 and 23 April (see EUROPE of 21 March, p.8).
Furthermore, during a single debate, ministers carried out an overview of the work in progress on a series of sensitive issues such as revision of the rules for attributing air slots, liberalisation of public transport (see EUROPE of 23 March, p.12), the opening of port services up to competition (see EUROPE of 23 March, p.13), and the compensation of passengers that are refused boarding, as well as the harmonisation of social aspects of road transport.
On Tuesday, ministers also took stock of the situation regarding the Commission's proposals for the creation of a "Single Sky", in order to improve air traffic control in Europe by 2004. A consensus is taking shape on the need to strengthen the interoperability of control systems and on the need for the Community as such to join Eurocontrol. On the other hand, cooperation between civilian and military for the use of the European sky is still causing problems, notes one European diplomat. French Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot noted that Commissioner de Palacio had given her assurance that harmonisation of the "Single Sky" would not be achieved through privatisation of air traffic control. The Spanish Presidency trusts an agreement will be reached in June.
The ministers held their first discussion of the Commission's second rail package that suggests opening national rail freight to competition from 2006 onwards. While the EU rail trade unions were demonstrating in Brussels against the creation of a single market in rail based on social dumping, European employers (UNICE) published a press release calling on ministers to adopt the Commission's proposals without delay to smash the vicious circle of high charges, bad services, financial losses, etc. EUROPE will return to the details of the Transport Council's negotiations.