The House's transport committee backed, on 21 April, a Commission proposal to temporarily freeze the EU's 'use it or lose it' rule, which allows an airline to keep landing slots at the Union's airports from one season to the next provided that it uses at least 80% of them effectively.
The original draft report by Italian Liberal MEP Paolo Costa was considerably amended. The MEPs rejected the rapporteur's proposals to lower the current 80% threshold to 75% for summer 2009, and to allow airlines to retain unused slots only if there is no demand for the slots and the same routes from another carrier.
Extension of exemption measures
But any extension of such exemptions should be conditional on a full revision of the EU's Slots Regulation, said the European Parliament's transport committee.
While MEPs agreed that the Commission could table a proposal to renew part of the temporary measures for the winter season, they refused to let this be decided by 'comitology', a procedure that delegates decision-making to the EU executive but leaves the Parliament without a say. Instead, MEPs insisted that the Commission must draw up a revised regulation to determine future slot allocations: a process whereby the Parliament has a major input as co-legislator.
Final adoption in early May
Following the committee vote, the Czech EU Presidency and representatives of the Parliament and the Commission held so-called 'trialogue' meetings on 22 April. According to sources, the outcome of the committee vote "should be OK" for the Council as well.
Meanwhile, the Commission finds it "unacceptable" that MEPs have made their backing of the proposal conditional on an overall revision of the whole regulation.
Member-state representatives meeting yesterday (23 April) were scheduled to further discuss the text agreed upon by the transport committee. Talks were due to focus on whether the Parliament's call for the Commission to revise the Slots Regulation should be considered binding or not.
The Parliament plenary vote is scheduled for 5 May.
