Brussels, 12/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The members of the Parliamentary committee on transport took a majority position in favour of the creation of the European blacklist of unreliable airlines and of a tightening up of passengers' rights concerning the identity of the carrier, in their adoption, on Wednesday, of the report by Christine de Veyrac (EPP-ED, France) by 43 votes to one, and one abstention. The report provides for the creation of a single European blacklist, drawn up in cooperation between the Commission and the Member States, which would list all carriers banned from flying in the EU, based on common safety criteria. This list would be updated by an accelerated procedure, to allow for a rapid reaction in case of new risks or threats to air safety. The list must be made public and accessible at all points of sale of tickets (travel agency premises and Internet sites). "Europe has taken a big step towards air safety", said the rapporteur, who would like this vote to be confirmed by the plenary session of 15 November and for an agreement to be reached with the Council by the end of the year, so that the text can be applied at the beginning of 2006. She would also like the list of common criteria, which is currently being discussed between the Commission and the Aviation Safety Committee (SAFA committee), to be annexed to her text at the vote in plenary.
In order to draw up the blacklist, the report provides that the Commission and the SAFA committee will be in charge of examining national blacklists, which are established on the basis of common criteria defined by them, and then to publish a single blacklist. Any updates to the list must take place within the 72 hours following a proposal to include an airline on the list by a Member State or by the Commission. Furthermore, the Member States will have a month to oppose the inclusion of a company, but the Commission and the SAFA committee will have the last word.
The report also opens passengers' rights for compensation, to include compensation for European citizens travelling outside the territory of the EU. In this way, the European blacklist will include not only airlines with traffic rights in the EU, but also those without such rights, but which may end up serving the territory of the EU, and thus transporting European citizens, when their equipment is chartered by companies with the right to fly within the EU. Ms de Veyrac's concern is that all European citizens should be provided with reinforced and identical safety, irrespective of the airport they take off from. "Legally, we cannot ban airlines without traffic rights from flying on European territory", explained Ms de Veyrac, but we can include them on this European list, depending on the criteria retained by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO). The report provides for compensation rights for passengers, when the identity of the carrier is not made known when they reserve their flight and it is subsequently revealed that the carrier does feature on the blacklist, or when the initial carrier is replaced, after the reservation was made, by a carrier on the list. These two scenarios, and the rights stemming from them, also concerned situations in which European passengers travel outside the EU with an airline which features on the list, but does not have traffic rights within the EU. The passengers would be warned that the carrier is on the list and informed of their rights, and it will be up to them to decide whether they wish to continue with their journey. Under this compensation system, European companies will effectively cease chartering companies without traffic rights within the EU but which feature on the European list, stated the rapporteur, even though she feels that "the best thing would be to have a blacklist at international level".