Brussels, 05/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council, which began on Thursday afternoon and which will continue into Friday, has reached two political agreements: one is on the legislative package concerning the creation of the single European sky by 2004 and the other is on the draft proposal on compensation for airline passengers when flights are cancelled, late or when passengers are not allow to board. These agreements were only possible because of the compromise documents presented by the Danish Presidency. The two papers will have to be approved in a second reading by the European Parliament.
Single Sky: Ministers therefore reached an agreement on the legislative package that included a draft regulation laying down the general framework for attaining the European single sky, and three draft technical regulations (air navigation service providers, organisation and use of airspace, inter-operability of the European airtraffic management network). The Council managed to settle two particularly sensitive issues: relations between civil and military authorities and the delimitation of functional airspace zones. On the issue of relations between the civilian and military authorities, Ministers adopted a declaration in which the main points are as follows: 1) the regulation aiming to set up the single sky will only apply to air traffic and not military operations; 2) the Member States which make commitments to cooperate in the concept of flexible use of airspace do so without restrictions and in uniformity with other Member States, while taking into account national military needs. In practical terms this will mean the military and civilian authorities will manage the airspace together and in case of peak periods, the military will free up the airspace they do not need; 3) the Member States will ensure that the interests of military users of the airspace will be represented within the single sky committee (which, we recall, is composed of two representatives per Member State) and that military staff will take part in the work of organisations established by the regulation (mainly organisations responsible for informing national regulatory authorities); 4) the Member States ensure strengthened cooperation between the civilian and military authorities on any question relating to air traffic. Austria accepted the declaration while indicating that it will make a unilateral declaration stipulating that the agreement did not bring into question the particularities of its own security policy. Furthermore, the Commission made a unilateral declaration in which it confirms its determination to cooperate with Eurocontrol, without, however, being detrimental to its right of own initiative on air matters. It adds that it hopes to be able to conclude a memorandum with the Agency for defining this cooperation. On the question of defining the limits of zones of airspace (which will be done independently of existing national borders in order to avoid fragmentation of the European sky), ministers agreed to the fact that such zones should be defined by bilateral agreements concluded between the Member States concerned, after consultation with the Commission and other Member States possibly concerned. In other words, the Member States keep a central role in the delimitation of such blocks while the European Commission had initially proposed that this defining of limits should be decided through comitology procedure. During deliberations, Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio had insisted that delimitation of airspace zones should at least be submitted to consultation of the Single Sky committee so that there is coherence, but this was dismissed by several delegations (including France and Germany), considering that consultation of the Commission and of the other Member States concerned was enough. Finally, the text also provides for Member States remaining competent for setting tariffs for airline services and for choosing airline service providers. "It's a great day for the European airspace", declared Gilles de Robein, French Transport Minister, adding that "the public service will not suffer", and welcoming the fact that, thanks to work put in by France and other Member States, "the text has evolved a great deal in three years."
Compensation for passengers: a political agreement was reached on a compromise text presented by the Presidency on the draft regulation relating to the compensation of airline passengers in case they are refused embarkation, or a flight is cancelled or greatly delayed. The Ministers of the Fifteen, except for Portugal and the United Kingdom which voted against the text, agreed to the amounts of compensation and on adding a review clause for these amounts. Thus, these amounts will be 250 euro for flights of less than 1500 km, 400 euro for intra-Community flights and from 1500 to 3000 km, and 600 euro for other flights. In addition, a clause provides for these amounts being reviewed in 2006. Loyola de Palacio declared that the Commission could accept this compromise although it was far from the amounts initially proposed to reach an agreement.