Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-08-Speech-1-113"
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"en.20100308.16.1-113"2
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"Mr President, this debate comes at a very timely juncture for tourism, the air travel industry and consumer protection.
Finally, one other idea that the Commission might consider is: how much does a flight cost? We are all aware that the advertised price does not include taxes and charges: there are charges to check in, charges for extra pieces of luggage, charges for virtually everything and anything. Revising this directive provides an opportune moment to compel travel and airline companies to provide better transparency, and we must take this opportunity to do so.
We had a summer where it seemed that half of Europe was stranded on holiday, with airlines and travel agents going bust left, right and centre, and consumers being stranded away from loved ones, in countries that were not their own. It was clear that our laws had failed to properly protect consumers. We had several reports of passengers left with no information about when they could get home, no transparency about who was technically responsible for their situation, no phone number to call to get any information and no idea how to seek redress when they did get home.
Therefore, I welcome this timely debate and the Commission’s efforts to tackle this matter, as all of us have let this area go for too long. Many problems with the Package Travel Directive were identified almost 10 years ago in a parliamentary report, but very little has moved on it since. I know that the proposed Consumer Rights Directive will deal with some issues, but cross-border air travel needs more European laws for the protection of consumers.
The very fact that the law is still called the Package Travel Directive shows how outdated it is. The majority of consumers no longer use travel packages if they have found cheaper methods to go on holiday and see the world. Forty per cent of travellers in my own country, Ireland, do not bother to use packages, and I know this is replicated in many other Member States. Most people are now acting as their own travel agents with online booking on sites such as Tripadvisor, where they effectively become their own travel agent. Our laws now must reflect this change in consumer behaviour.
One of the most significant issues that must come from any review is to demonstrate clearly to the consumer who is responsible in the event of these delays and cancellations. Travel companies must be mandated to provide very clear information. Consumers must be told where they can get this information and be informed of their rights in the circumstances.
Under the current legislation, there are no clear lines of responsibility. In the event of a mishap, is it the airline that is responsible? Is it the travel agent? Is it the airport or train station? Who should a consumer ask for the information? Typically, these situations descend into scrambles of information from various sources and nobody knows whether they are going or coming.
If we are trying to build the European economy based on cross-border trade, consumers have to be aware of their rights and entitlements and how these are enforced and communicated. I know, for example, that it is extremely difficult to find an airline’s complaints department. How can you get redress if you do not know where to go or ask?
What I will be calling for – and I am hopeful that the Commission will take this on board – is for the basic principles of customer care to be enshrined in clearly communicated legislation that is uniformly understood and simple. Updating this law is not enough. Member States must be obliged to communicate new legislation to citizens once it is agreed."@en1
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