Legislation

Currently there is a wide variety of public and private initiatives that aim at defining the principles and criteria to be used by European tourism stakeholders for ensuring the development and provision of quality tourism within the EU. However, these quality systems often show little consistency and coordination as they usually focus on individual sectoral or territorial objectives without following a European integrated approach. This fragmentation is a possible obstacle to achieving a EU level playing field for providing high-quality tourism service throughout Europe, which is likely to cause detriment to the competitiveness of the European tourism sector. The objective of this public consultation is to obtain the views of a wide circle of public and private stakeholders and individuals on a possible EU action in this field. As one of the possible actions, the Commission foresees the proposal for a European Tourism Label for Quality Systems, with a potential to bring greater transparency and consistency into quality evaluation at EU level. The European label would recognise those existing and future tourism quality systems that comply with the common European criteria. The results of this consultation will help us assess the impacts of the proposed initiative. All interested parties are invited to express their views by answering the questionnaire. Further information and questionaire available here>>.  

All-in air fares, airline employees able to help stranded passengers immediately, and proper compensation when airlines go bust are the key requests set out in a resolution on air passengers' rights voted by the Transport and Tourism Committee on Tuesday. With a view to a forthcoming revision of the relevant EU legislation, the resolution calls on the European Commission to clarify air passengers' rights, ensure that legislation protecting them is applied uniformly, and take measures to improve the accountability of airlines. Air carriers should ensure that there are contact personnel present at each airport, entitled to take immediate decisions on assistance, reimbursement, rerouting and rebooking in the event of disruption. The triple choice of "refunding, rerouting or rebooking" as a basic right in the event of travel disruption should be immediately offered to stranded passengers, MEPs say. Additionally, where luggage is lost or delayed, the passenger should immediately receive information on rights and the relevant complaints procedure. MEPs want each air carrier to set up a mandatory central information point, and also a web site, a low-cost phone number and an email address where passengers can lodge their complaints. MEPs also ask that the price of a flight ticket advertised on a web site should include all charges. They call on the Commission to ensure that existing legislation on unfair commercial practices is properly enforced. The resolution also suggests measures to allow passengers to correct minor booking errors or withdraw from an online reservation within 2 hours of booking. MEPs want the role of the National Enforcement Bodies to be better defined, so that national sanctions against air carriers in breach of EU rules can be made more effective. They also want the Commission to draw up and publish airline performance records, based on the annual number of complaints. The maximum time for processing passenger complaints should be 2 months for airlines and 2 months for enforcement bodies, they add. The report calls the "extraordinary circumstances" in which airlines do not have to pay compensation fees to be clarified, and asks the Commission to incorporate the relevant European Court of Justice ruling in the legislation. Furthermore, to achieve full accountability to passengers in "extraordinary circumstances", better cooperation and coordination are needed among air carriers, airports and related service providers, says the text, which also calls for proper compensation when airlines go bankrupt. Persons with reduced mobility or disabilities should be granted barrier-free access to all air transport services, says the text. The own-initiative report was approved in committee with 41 votes in favour, 1 against and 4 abstentions. The plenary vote is scheduled for 29 March. Source: European Parliament press release of Feb. 28, 2012

Vice-President Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for Transport today was briefed by the board of the European Cruise Council about cruise ship safety. Vice President Kallas announced that the Commission strongly supports a passenger ship safety review at IMO (International Maritime Organisation) to ensure that European citizens can expect state of the art safety measures in place - no matter where they board a passenger ship. The EU Transport Commissioner outlined the need for a twin-track approach with the IMO. Following its ongoing passenger ship safety review, the EU will either propose re-enforcing recent IMO standards or propose new EU minimum norms, some of which could form the basis for new IMO standards. The following steps are planned next: The Commission services will launch a public consultation process on the passenger ship safety, legislative review, during spring 2012 (April 2012). The Vice President will host, in spring 2012 a conference with stakeholders on the Safety of Passenger Ships. Following the Costa Concordia accident, the IMO has announced that it will consider issues relating to the safety of passenger ships, at the IMO Maritime Safety Committee meeting from 16-25 May 2012. The Commission will bring forwards, if necessary, proposals to adapt existing rules on the safety of passenger ship safety to new developments in the sector before the end of the year. The Vice President will provide more detail about the possible content and timing of his proposals before Summer 2012. Source: EUC press release RAPID IP/12/97 of 03/02/2012

Vice-President Siim Kallas, European Commissioner for Transport has asked that the currently ongoing review of EU passenger ship safety legislation take fully into account any lessons to be learnt from the Costa Concordia tragedy. The review will prioritise, in particular, the issues of: design and stability of passenger ships, technological developments in the sector, crew training and safe operation, including emergency evacuation procedures. Vice-President Kallas will outline the Commission's position to the European Parliament's Transport Committee on Tuesday 24 January 2012. Source: EU press releases RAPID MEMO/12/25 of 20/01/2012; find full text here>>.