The European Parliament and Council negotiators reached an agreement on new rules to ensure fair competition in air transport. The agreed rules aim to ease the process of opening investigations in cases of suspected use of practices distorting competition by non-EU countries – subsidies, preferential access to airport services,….
…. or unfair pricing by non-EU country airlines that cause injury or “threaten to cause injury” to EU air carriers. These rules also set out the procedures for repressive measures.
The agreement is a part of ongoing efforts, outlined in the Aviation Strategy and Open and Connected Aviation package, to ensure that the EU aviation sector remains competitive and that the EU’s connectivity is safeguarded, by finding new market opportunities and removing existing barriers.
The provisional agreement on the revision of Regulation 868/2004 now needs to be approved by the Parliament and the Council. The European Parliament’s rapporteur for the regulation is Markus Pieper (EPP, DE).
For ESC, a free and fair competition is seen as an important precondition for a sufficient service level within the European air (cargo-) market. Subsidies and related measures disturb the level playing field in the market, which should, as much as possible, be governed by principles of the free market.