Transportministers bespreken passagiersrechten en veiligheidsproblematiek (en)
At the Meeting of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (TTE) to be held in Luxembourg on 10th of October, 2013 the EU transport ministers are exptected to discuss air carrier liability in ensuring the air passenger rights and reach a consensus to agree on rail safety improvement measures, among other issues.
“I expect this Meeting of the Council to be very productive: the debate on air passenger rights should give us good guidance for updating of EU rules, we will seek to adopt general approaches of the Council on several important dossiers, namely on Railway Safety directive, Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) agency, Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR i) project and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA),” says the Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania Rimantas Sinkevičius.
In the field of aviation, the ministers will hold a first policy debate on air passenger rights - based on European Commission‘s proposal for a regulation to establish common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and cancellation or long delay of flights. The meeting will address key topics, as proposed by the Lithuanian Presidency in the context of strengthening air passenger rights to assistance and compensation when a passenger misses a connecting flight or in the event of a long flight delay. Additionally, the participants will touch upon air carrier liability in respect of the carriage of passengers and their baggage by air.
In order to improve air traffic management system and safety, the Council is expected to adopt Council’s position on European Commission’s proposal aimed at establishing the next generation air traffic management system - Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) project as well as at continuing a joint venture’s (which develops this system) activity till 2024. This new system is particularly significant for the growing air traffic management. It should considerably improve the flight safety and will help to increase the European competitiveness in the global aviation market.
Additionally, the ministers at this Council will be addressing the fourth rail package. This package aims to create a common European railway area and market by eliminating the extant administrative, technical and market access obstacles. The Council will seek a general approach on the Railway Safety Directive, which aims to align the common regulatory framework for railway safety.
The ministers of transport are also set to seek an agreement on further funding for the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) for 2014-2020. This funding is essential to ensure the continuation of EMSA’s activity in the field of safety and ship pollution as well as prevention of oil and gas installations.
The last important issue on the agenda of the Council is to seek General approach on the Regulation setting up European Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) agency. It is expected that the implementation of it will create a system, which ensures appropriate process of accreditation of the European satellite navigation systems.