Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-04-04-Speech-3-247"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010404.8.3-247"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I should like to congratulate Mrs Sanders-ten Holte for her excellent report, which highlights the importance of rapidly implementing the Montreal Convention and of informing passengers at length about the rights it gives them.
The Commission can, however, accept all the other amendments, which strengthen or clarify the text.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, madam rapporteur, I have summarised the Commission’s position on this report. I should like to thank Mrs Sander-ten Holte once again for her marvellous work and support for the swift introduction of the Montreal Convention into Community law, and she is quite right, since this new incorporation will mean passing on from the international system agreed 72 years ago – which in the end was trying to restrict the airlines’ liability – to another, more modern system which is aiming to do just the opposite: to give a high level of cover to the protection of passengers’ rights.
We in the Commission fully share the tenor of the report, since it supports our intention of providing air passengers with a high level of protection in the event of an accident, it aims to modernise the rules on liability for delays and damage to baggage, and especially it aims to provide users with better information about their rights, since the greatest problem is often that the users themselves do not know what their rights are.
I am delighted to tell you that at its meeting tomorrow the Transport Council should adopt a decision to ratify the Convention and for the Community to ratify the Convention at the same time as the Member States.
Furthermore, the Community must bring Community rules on airline liability into line with those of the Montreal Convention, which is the aim of this proposal.
With regard to the amendments that have been tabled, perhaps the most important are those concerned with the information to be given to passengers on the provisions about the airlines’ liability. In its proposal, the Commission requires the companies to provide passengers with detailed information. The report intends to strengthen the wording of the rule to oblige Community carriers to make available an information leaflet, as given in the Annex that is proposed. This would ensure that the airlines gave passengers the necessary information in a precise manner, something that experience shows does not always happen.
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission accepts Amendments Nos 13 and 18.
The other two amendments, numbers 19 and 20, would, if approved, have the result that carriers from third countries would be exempt from the obligation to inform their passengers on the rules relating to their liability, and we therefore cannot accept this discrimination and reject both amendments.
We also have a few doubts about Amendments Nos 9 and 10, since according to them the airlines’ liabilities would be governed by the relevant provisions of the Montreal Convention without the corresponding articles being specified. The Commission proposal, however, lays down that liability shall be governed by the provisions of seven articles of the Montreal Convention, which are explicitly numbered. Ladies and gentlemen, changing this matter could lead to a hostile reaction by some Member States, and the subsequent debate would slow down the adoption of the regulation to the detriment of the passengers. That is why we cannot accept Amendments Nos 9 and 10.
We cannot accept Amendment No 11 either, since the article cannot be deleted if the text still refers to specific articles of the Montreal Convention, in line, therefore, with the previous rejection."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples