Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-18-Speech-2-592"
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"en.20100518.37.2-592"2
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"Madam President, honourable Members, thank you very much for the many interesting and detailed comments on this ash problem. I only had three minutes at the beginning. Now I can elaborate at least 10 times more on all these issues, but I will be brief – do not worry – or at least not too long.
So far, I do not know if anybody has applied for State aid in this particular area because, as I said at the beginning, airlines have contingency plans.
Somebody mentioned that they should have insurance. I asked them as well about the insurance. Insurance is more or less impossible because you cannot describe the product, or you can describe the product but it will be so expensive that it is not affordable. They have contingency plans on how to deal with extraordinary circumstances which disrupt the schedules. Of course, as an economist, I can see that there is a lot of room for different fantasies, what to calculate under the losses and what is a real number. It is a huge work to define the exact consequences of this volcanic ash which can be presented as a claim.
Regarding alternative transport, we will, of course, push ahead. We will have a TEN-T meeting soon where the Commission will push ahead for the development of a network of other modes of transport. I asked railways what is possible and what they actually did during this crisis, and they sent a lot of interesting information. There were additional trains, but the information about availability, timetables and other things remain, so far, very poor. One of our biggest priorities for the near future will be to have better information about all these possibilities.
Again, if there is a crisis in aviation, then bringing passengers home or taking them to destinations will still mainly be in the hands of airlines. It is at the planning stages that it is very important to also consider other modes and indeed other engines. This is another interesting story. There are lessons to be learned, and we are learning these lessons, and we will push forward with many plans and measures to create more streamlined air traffic management in Europe.
I must stress that volcanoes do not obey any rules, and we cannot exclude possible extraordinary events. There will always be some risk which must be taken into account, and such a risk must be part of planning our activities.
I can only say that it has really been a very exciting and extraordinary period, and it is back again. It is clear that volcanoes continue to erupt as this Icelandic volcano is doing. This is all part of life for the aviation industry, but it is not only volcanoes but also thunderstorms, snow and such occurrences which all disrupt aviation. This is a part of this business, we must be very clear about that. Nobody alone can be responsible for this risk – no airlines, no governments, no European Union. I must also say that so far, the European Union has no jurisdiction at all in regulating air traffic. It has been intergovernmental bodies that have been dealing with this so far, as well as national authorities.
To exclude, prevent or foresee everything which can happen in aviation is impossible. The risks must be shared and clients who decide to use aviation services must be prepared – as we must all be – for some delay if, for example, the runway at Brussels airport is not cleared of snow or some other thing.
Regarding the criticism that we acted late and regarding who in fact acted: I was there in Eurocontrol; the risk from ash is a real risk, and we cannot hold out for the possibility that we will finally find scientific solutions concerning what size of particle would be considered dangerous for engines, because nobody wants to give this assessment. We can determine particle size and we can assess the cloud, but nobody wants to give an assessment and to say that this ash is no longer dangerous for the engines. This will be a very complicated thing. The decision to close airspace was taken strictly in accordance with the existing rules and with all relevant institutions who were responsible for this. To those who ask who is now responsible for the closure of airspace, I would ask them who would be responsible if the airspace had not been closed and something had happened.
When Eurocontrol sought to find some different approaches to the ash cloud, it was not an easy decision or easy discussion because it was a matter of deciding to take enormous responsibility for the safety of aviation. The safety of planes and lives must come first. I think it was done reasonably fast under these circumstances because the volcano was, and continues to be, very exceptional and extraordinary.
Regarding the future, the key issue mentioned by somebody is what about Indonesia, what about the United States? There is a responsibility, which mainly rests with the pilots. In Europe today, pilots tend to reject this kind of new responsibility. European air traffic is very busy and there must be some kind of combination between greater flexibility and clear data about the possible threats and possible risks. I do not know about Indonesia, but in the United States, the system is very simple: it is the pilot who decides how to circumvent the ash and I must say that this works very well. But in Europe, we must obviously first create some common approach to the methodology of possible assessment of risk.
Regarding passengers, I must say that we have always consistently and forcefully stated from the Commission side that passenger rights legislation must be complied with. This is a very clear message. Again, the enforcement of this legislation is in the hands of Member States but I understand that most airlines and most Member States also have taken this very seriously. There are different examples and, of course, in the aftermath, there will be exposure to negative examples as well, but mostly they have been taken seriously, and we are planning a revision of passenger rights. We will definitely then assess what to do with the attempts to abuse passenger rights and excessive interpretations of passenger rights. In general, the passenger rights legislation has worked very well and the logic must be there. Passenger rights stipulate that passengers must be provided with information, with care and with rerouting or reimbursement under these extraordinary circumstances, not compensation. This is a different word.
There is a huge programme under way with the Single Sky initiative in order to streamline air traffic management, and I cannot complain about the cooperation between Member States during this particular period. The Transport Council was very cooperative and made many decisions which probably, under other circumstances, would have taken much longer. I really cannot say that we had bad cooperation with Member States in preparing and handling this extraordinary Transport Council.
Regarding finance and financial consequences, its rules are very simple and they are very clearly described in our paper prepared by three Commissioners – Rehn, Almunia and myself. This is State aid, and State aid can be given if Member States consider that there are enough reasons to give State aid to an airline which is in trouble, because passenger rights and all these costs must be borne by the airline. If the airline is in trouble and if a Member State considers that this is really a very bad situation, then State aid can be given, but, before State aid is given, a very careful assessment must be made not to create distortions and unfair advantages in the market. This was the main concern of airlines as well, and a fair approach to everybody is also the Commission’s concern; our competition department will definitely look very carefully at all possible State aid cases."@en1
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