On 14 May, the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism began considering proposed amendments on the enforcement of passenger rights in the Union as well as passenger rights in multimodal journey proposals.
On the enforcement of passenger rights, political groups broadly agree on the need for greater clarity on cabin luggage policies and would like to establish an automatic refund mechanism. Overall, MEPs are pushing for standardisation but the Renew and S&D groups are keen to consider different standards based on the type of flight and aircraft.
When discussing passenger rights in multimodal journeys, MEPs broadly stressed the need to incentivise the development of multimodal offers, ensure legal clarity, increased transparency and a high level of protection of persons with reduced mobility (PRMs). The impression that the distinction between single, combined and separate tickets created a lot of confusion was broadly shared. The Renew and EPP groups flagged that a proposal on multimodal offer ticketing should be discussed before reviewing passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys. The European Commission confirmed it is currently being drafted and should be tabled this year.
Finally, MEPs also condemned the Council’s approach of trying to adopt its position on EU261 as a first reading and defended the need for a proper co-decision process which would not hinder the Parliament’s influence.
Alongside, the Council will examine the political agreements reached by transport attaches. The text will be first voted in COREPER on 4 June, and later at ministerial level during the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council on 5 June.
The Council appears close to reaching an agreement on the revision of Regulation 261/2004 on passenger rights. Based on news articles, the main amendments would include an increase of the threshold leading to compensation from 3 to 4 hours and a compensation rate of increased from €250 to €300 for flights of less than 3,500km.
In case the Council decides to adopt such a text as first reading, the trilogue will not happen and the EP will have three months to examine the Council’s position, making the procedure shorter than in usual practice.
ERA issued a press release on 22 May calling for a fair, proportionate and flexible approach to passenger rights that protects the connectivity of Europe’s regions, reiterating the asks of its members.