01/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - MEP Michael Cramer (Green, Germany) welcomed the opening in Paris on 28 February of the conference on additional sources of development funding, focussing largely on a levy on airline tickets (see EUROPE 9133). Mr Cramer said that this was a first step for the international community which had hitherto been passive. He called on EU Member States, and particularly Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, to follow the example of France which will apply the levy from 1st July. He hoped that the next steps would focus on taxes on aviation fuel and the assimilation of air transport into the Kyoto Protocol.