Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-14-Speech-1-130"
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"en.20080114.17.1-130"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, of course it is always better when the Commissioner is present, as there are some critical points that I would like to put to him directly, but I will have to do this at a later time.
For more than 15 years we have been trying, or rather the Commission has been trying, to lay down a regulatory framework in the form of an EU directive on airport charges. Two attempts have already failed because of the conflict of interest between the airports and the airlines and between the different Member States. On this occasion, too, there was a great deal of conflict and I cannot recall a single one of the 189 amendments in committee that was generally accepted by all the parties involved.
Many airlines want to see as much cost transparency as possible from the other side, the airports, and a regulatory authority that would ultimately set the prices, along with the introduction of the ‘single till’ system. Many airports would prefer no change whatsoever to the status quo. Moreover, the negotiations were also hampered by the structural particularities that exist in various Member States.
The United Kingdom, for example, already has a rigorous regulatory authority, the CAA, while at the same time most of the airports want to be deregulated and indeed the trend is in that direction. In Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Finland and Spain many of the airports are operated in a system of airport networks with standard airport charges, which means cross-subsidisation and often results in little transparency. In Spain airport charges are even laid down by Parliament, in other words the Members of Parliament decide on the levels that will apply. In Germany this area has been controlled at federal level and not by a national authority, while in the new Member States airport charges are needed to a large extent to develop the airport infrastructure.
I mention all these different interests if only to demonstrate how complicated these negotiations have been. What we have achieved to date has therefore been primarily directed at settling these conflicts of interest, for we in the committee are of the opinion that such a regulation is needed and that every effort should be made to agree on one.
So what has been achieved so far towards settling these differences? We have reduced the field of application to airports with either five million passenger journeys or more a year or 15% of the national passenger throughput in the Member State concerned, for in the case of regional airports with less than five million passengers a year the risk of an abuse of market power is either small or absent. Secondly, we have stipulated that airports will be free to choose their preferred business model, and thirdly, we have included airport networks generally within the scope of the directive. Fourthly, we have firmed up the role of the regulatory authorities and allowed them to delegate all or part of the provisions to regional regulatory bodies. Fifthly, we have introduced stricter requirements for the intervention of the regulatory authority and, sixthly, we have again allowed airport managing bodies to pre-finance infrastructure projects via their airport charges, as had been possible in the past, though subject to certain conditions. We want to see differentiation of charges based on objective criteria and according to the level of services provided and the environmental performance, and we want to see a system for defining and concluding an overall service level agreement.
The compromises that have been negotiated were adopted by the Committee on Transport and Tourism with only one dissenting vote. That is a real achievement, considering the starting position, and on this point I would like to express my thanks to all the shadow rapporteurs for their close and constructive collaboration.
We now have to lay down standardised principles of transparency, non-discrimination and regulated consultation and notification when setting airport charges in Europe. This will help reduce future distortions of competition and make it more difficult for those who might seek to abuse their market power.
The directive will, in my opinion, make a significant contribution towards stabilising the inherent partnership that exists between airports and airlines and at the same time will strengthen Europe’s position as an air transport hub. I therefore call on Members to support the Committee on Transport and Tourism in tomorrow’s vote on the directive at first reading."@en1
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