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ERA MEMBERS CALL ON EUROPE TO REJECT BAD LAWS 18/10/2005
Two resolutions from European Regions Airline Association members at their Gothenburg annual meeting last Friday call for fundamental new thinking from Europe’s lawmakers. In one, transport ministers and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are urged to throw out proposed laws that do not meet “Better Governance” requirements. Another calls on the European Union to establish a better balance between economic growth and transport’s environmental impact. ERA called upon the Council of Transport Ministers and the European Parliament to “return legislative proposals to the European Commission” which do not reach basic standards. The call comes following the EU’s enactment of Regulation 261/2004 (governing compensation and assistance for air passengers when they are denied boarding or when flights are cancelled or delayed), universally regarded within the industry as poorly conceived and drafted, together with concerns about details of forthcoming legislation on the rights of disabled passengers. In the ERA Resolution, four “tests” are suggested for proposals, with failure to pass any one test leading to rejection by Council and Parliament. They are that: - a proposal does not identify and quantify the issues that the legislation is intended to resolve, or
- the objectives could be achieved through non-legislative means, or
- a proposal goes beyond the minimum action necessary to achieve its objectives, or
- a regulatory impact assessment is not included.
ERA Director General Mike Ambrose said: “Pressure is mounting on the European Commission to meet the standards they set for themselves. The current UK Presidency is committed to better governance. Air transport has been damaged by laws which have not been evaluated in a business-like way – this must stop.” ERA also wants the EU to “adopt an approach to the regulation of all modes of intra-European transport that balances the requirement for economic growth with transport’s environmental impact.” The Resolution insists that the approach should cover all modes of transport and include: “investment in research and development to ensure the production of more environmentally efficient equipment, investment in infrastructure to reduce congestion and consequential environmental impact, investment to improve operational efficiency, and emissions trading, or other economic instruments for those modes of transport for which emissions trading is not viable.
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