Emergency EU measures might be postponed until the new European Parliament takes office in September should MEPs fail to reach a compromise by the end of April, sources said.
Paolo Costa, the Italian liberal MEP in charge of steering the proposal through the Parliament, said "what appeared to be a straightforward and uncontroversial proposal at first sight is in fact highly complex and contentious".
According to Parliament sources, all political groups, including the two biggest ones, the centre-right EPP-ED and the Socialists, are internally divided on the proposal.
Use it or lose it
According to the 'use it or lose it' rule, airlines are entitled to keep their slots from one season to the next only if it uses at least 80% of them. The European Commission argues that airlines should not be forced to operate half-empty aeroplanes in order to retain their slots, for both economic and environmental reasons.
But depressed markets have led the Commission to review its policy. In March it tabled a proposal to temporarily freeze the rule.
The transport committee's draft report on the issue, adopted on 31 March, notes that a complete suspension of the 'use it or lose it' rule is not appropriate, as there is still demand for slots at major airports. MEPs said the measure would only offer incumbent carriers at an advantage, while preventing other airlines from competing for historic slots and leading to fewer flights at higher prices for passengers.
However, the draft underlines that "the concerns of network airlines must be addressed," and says that it is environmentally questionable for airlines to fly half-empty planes and emit CO2 purely for economic reasons.
The report thus proposes to lower the current 80% threshold to 75% for summer 2009, and suggests that airlines should be entitled to retain unused slots only if there is no demand for that slot and the same route from another carrier.
As for prolonging the temporary measures - by comitology procedure - until the winter season, the rapporteur said he was against that possibility, and underlined instead that "the situation should be monitored to gain more insight into the nature of the crisis and its impact" by autumn, after which the Commission should, if appropriate, present a new proposal "that may include entirely different instruments than the ones currently foreseen".
The new proposal would then be examined and amended by the next Parliament.
EU-27 representatives discussed the dossier on 7 April in view of reaching a constructive first-reading agreement, which would allow quick implementation of the measures. According to sources, member states are somewhat divided on the issue in general. They would also prefer to decide on any future extension of the suspension by comitology procedure, instead of through co-decision procedure with the House. However, the Council seems to be willing to give in to the Parliament on this.
The rapporteur is currently holding informal discussions with the Czech EU Presidency on the issue.
