Brussels, 21/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - MEP Christine de Veyrac (EPP-ED, France) presented her working paper on air safety to the Committee on Transport in response to the Commission's proposal on passenger information relating to the identity of the air carrier, and on the creation of a black list accessible to citizens. Ms de Veyrac suggests that the duty to inform passengers about the identity of the transport company should be recalled in each transport contract, which would above all remove the contradiction between this right to information and a condition established by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and annexed to the ticket, stipulating: “The transport company may, without notice, use other carriers or aircraft”.
According to Ms de Veyrac, the Commission and Council's decision to proceed to compiling black lists established by each Member State comprises risks of legal insecurity and confusion which could be remedied by certain harmonisation of criteria for the establishment of such a black list. Three possibilities are envisaged: - a Community list (established by the Commission, on the basis of common criteria, associating the European Air Safety Agency), - a harmonised list (established according to harmonised criteria, decided by an ad hoc committee involving Member States and the Commission), - or a coordinated list (compilation of national lists with prior coordination and assessment of the relevance of the prohibition measures foreseen). These proposals could be incorporated into the so-called SAFA Directive that the Commission has enhanced recently further to the Onur Air affair, providing as of May 2006 for the possibility of extending a flight ban imposed on the air-line company of a third country to all EU Member States (EUROPE 8957). Furthermore, Ms de Veyrac raises the question of including in the list companies that do not have traffic rights in a Member State but which would be refused such rights if they requested them on the grounds that they are not sufficiently controlled by their national authorities (on the basis of audits carried out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO). The problem would occur if such companies made aircraft available to third country companies which enjoy traffic rights in the EU and if EU nationals travelled with these companies on routes outside Community territory. According to Ms de Veyrac, it would also be necessary to foresee a limit to the duration or nature of prohibition or restriction measures in cases where measures are above all taken to encourage rapid levelling without being a real sanction. Christine de Veyrac considers that the blue lists, including the names of the most effective companies when it comes to safety, should be a complement to the black lists to give passengers a clearer vision of the whole of the air carrier landscape.