Consumer passenger rights remain applicable and national measures to support the aviation industry must not lower them, the European Commission said in response to questions by Labour MEP Alfred Sant.
Sant, a former Prime Minister, asked about the commission’s actions regarding airlines and national authorities that should be supervising that EU air passenger rights are being respected. The questions were submitted as a follow-up to another question Sant asked in July on the reimbursement of cancelled flight tickets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In her reply on behalf of the commission, European Commissioner for Transport Adina-Ioana Valean stated that passengers’ right to get reimbursement in cash if they so wished has been underscored in the commission guidelines of March 18 on EU passenger rights regulations as well as the commission’s recommendation of May 13 on vouchers.
On May 14, the commission sent letters to all member states urging them to ensure that the EU passenger rights regulations are correctly applied.
Commissioner Valean said the responsibility for enforcement of the regulation on air passenger rights lay with the national enforcement bodies designated by each member state.
Following the exchange of letters, on July 2, the commission opened infringement proceedings against Italy and Greece for having adopting legislation in contradiction to the EU legal framework. Both countries took measures that did not comply with EU rules on air passenger rights and on waterborne travel.
In its written response to Sant, the commission said it is currently assessing the responses from these states and is also investigating into the situation in all 27 members.
To this end, it requested to receive by the end of October detailed information on the application of the EU rules on passenger rights from the member states' national authorities through the EU pilot dialogue mechanism.
The European Commission added that the alleged practices by airlines are also the subject of a consultation process it launched in the network of national consumer protection cooperation authorities with a view to possible coordinated enforcement measures.
The commission noted that it is not reflecting on creating an additional mechanism because the existing one is applicable.