Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-20-Speech-2-013"
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"en.20100420.3.2-013"2
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"Mr President, I am very happy to present to Parliament the report on the action taken by the Commission regarding the effects of the European airspace crisis as a result of the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. The House will know that 84 000 flights have been cancelled, affecting thousands of passengers.
Passenger rights is another important issue, and we must enforce the implementation of passenger rights. The rules are good ones. Everyone shares the view that the rules are good. The question is enforcement, which again is in the hands of the Member States. We should really push ahead with that and have several ideas on how to better enforce the rules.
I would now like to comment on what are, in my view, deliberate attempts to confuse things – who should do what, who has done what and what the models are. It is clear that in some countries, elections are coming up, and so on, but after the volcanic eruption, all the decisions made were based on existing and agreed models on how to handle these kinds of situation.
This model is intergovernmental and airspace is a national competence. It is not the Commission which is giving the orders – there are rules covering our national systems and our model, to repeat, is based on existing information and existing assessments. There is nothing wrong with that model. We can now think about how to modify the model. We started discussing this yesterday. To say that the European model completely failed is totally wrong. This was, and is, an extraordinary event. The eruption of such a volcano and the unexpected widespread cloud of ash is something which has happened on very rare occasions in the world – it is not like snow or the like, which occurs often.
It was already clear at the weekend that the situation was turning into something very exceptional, and over the weekend, we had several discussions on how to approach the issue. To say that the Transport Ministers should have intervened immediately is completely contrary to our understanding of how things are organised in Europe. Those kinds of decisions are in the hands of independent experts and independent bodies. Myself and Minister López Garrido were at Eurocontrol on Sunday, and I was in contact with all the Transport Ministers of the larger Member States. We were ready to take responsibility and ask what we should do to resolve the situation. However, these cannot be arbitrary decisions, but are in the hands of a special body. That body held a meeting, and we held discussions with it, on Sunday. These were very difficult discussions, as what was under consideration were people’s lives.
On Monday morning, there was an extraordinary Eurocontrol council, which agreed on the so-called ‘free zones’ model. We were very happy that Eurocontrol was cooperative. To repeat, this was not within the Community’s competence at all, but events have shown that a national approach was an obsolete approach. We definitely have a greater impetus now to create a more European approach to these kinds of events and to regulate them. We must also, of course, assess the consequences and outcome.
The main thing – as everybody, including the airlines, said – was that it was very important to resume flights. Concerning passengers, the most important thing is to get people back home or to their destinations. That was the key issue addressed yesterday.
To sum up, we are working intensively with the Council and with Eurocontrol to monitor the situation and, if necessary, to take new decisions. The model provided for now is quite suitable for resuming the vast majority of flights.
As you know, Eurocontrol, at our initiative, convened a telephone conference on Monday morning and the Commission participated actively yesterday afternoon in an extraordinary Council of Transport Ministers. There are, in my view, four key messages to convey following the Council.
All the Transport Ministers are in favour of a coordinated European response to the crisis. National solutions are not effective in dealing with these kinds of problems, which affect airspace globally. I must underline that the spirit of cooperation amongst the Transport Ministers was high and we have had several telephone conversations where everybody stated they were ready to take responsibility and cooperate.
The second important point is that safety comes first. There cannot be any compromise on safety. This is, and remains, our fundamental concern. We have to ensure the highest safety standards for our citizens.
The third principle is that the Ministers agreed to the progressive and coordinated opening of European airspace while ensuring safety. This started this morning at 08.00, through Eurocontrol. Three types of zones are included in this decision, based on the degree of contamination. The first of these zones is located at the nucleus of the emissions, where total restriction of operations will be maintained, given that it is impossible to guarantee its safety.
The second of the zones is one which will not, in principle, impede air traffic cooperation being carried out, even though ash is still present. That zone will need to be confirmed, and the decisions on operations will be taken in a coordinated manner by the authorities in the Member States.
The third zone is not affected by ash, resulting in no restrictions of any type on operations. Eurocontrol is providing maps every six hours with the relevant information for the national authorities.
Fourth, through these measures, we are ultimately anticipating the implementation of the single European sky programme and, in particular, the functions of the network manager. I know I can count on the strong support of Parliament following the success of the second single European sky package last year.
You will know, and the minister mentioned, that a taskforce – a group of Commissioners – has been organised to discuss State aid issues. Yesterday, I talked with airline representatives and they said that they are simply not ready yet to assess their losses. The main question for them, owing to all the economic consequences, is to resume flights. The model for resuming flights is the most important thing. We should not panic about State aid and any other measures to help the air transport sector."@en1
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