Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-23-Speech-3-290"

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"Mr President, I should like begin by congratulating Mrs de Palacio on having proposed a text of this nature. I believe it was necessary and timely in light of two phenomena: on the one hand, the democratisation of air traffic that we must anticipate in all its forms and with all the consequences it entails and, on the other, the increase in denied boarding, which occurs sometimes and quite often – increasingly often, in fact – for reasons that are not openly declared and which are often commercial. It was, therefore, absolutely crucial to continue to make progress in affirming and protecting passengers’ rights, whilst avoiding falling into the trap of seeing the matter as all black or all white, and in particular the trap of excessively condemning the airlines. In this regard, I wish to congratulate our rapporteur and the entire Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism. I would say that following this reading in the Committee on Transport, we are finally achieving quite a healthy balance. A balance first of all between passengers’ rights and a flexible service. Overbooking in particular is a bad thing when it is a systematic commercial practice, but it is also an argument for flexibility between those who cancel at the last moment, because customers are sometimes also responsible for overbooking, and those who could take their place. Balance has also been reached between airlines’ liability for compensation and the basic economic requirements of air transport, so that the payment of compensation does not have an undue knock-on effect on prices at a time when the economic situation is difficult or does not lead to an increase in prices for passengers. Lastly, balance has been reached between the cost of denied boarding and the precautionary principle in the field of safety. What had to be avoided at all costs was for sanctions or compensation to be so high that they cause airlines not to take major technical incidents quite so seriously, in other words, using safety to offset the costs of denied boarding. As a result of these various balances that have been achieved, the Committee on Transport has backed Mr Lisi and has today provided us with a useful text. My hope is that the Commission will take account of the comments and the recommendations of the European Parliament. I must also, however, express one regret: perhaps we have not been firm enough on waiting lists, which are often unclear and on which we should have forced airlines to allocate passengers seats in the order in which they booked."@en1

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