A4-0071/98

Resolution on improving safety, consumers' rights and trading standards in the tourism sector

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the treaties establishing the European Community, as modified by the EU Treaty, and, in particular, Articles 3(t) and 129a thereof,

- having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to Council Directive 90/314/EEC on package travel, package holidays and package tours ((OJ L 158, 23.6.1990, p. 59.)) and to the judgment of the European Court of Justice of 8 October 1996 on its non-incorporation and the liability and compensation obligations of those Member States not having incorporated it,

- having regard to its opinion of 25 October 1996 ((OJ C 347, 18.11.1996, p. 430.)) and to the Commission's modified proposal concerning a first multiannual programme to assist European tourism ('Philoxenia' - 1997-2000) ((OJ C 13 14.1.1997, p. 11.)),

- having regard to the Commission communication on priorities for consumer policy 1996-1998 (COM(95)0519 - C4-0501/95) and Parliament's resolution of 20 February 1997 thereon ((OJ C 85, 17.3.1997, p. 133.)),

- having regard to Petitions Nos 752/97, 976/94, 493/95 and 726/95,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A4-0071/98),

A. whereas the protection of the tourist, as a consumer of services, is the responsibility of the European Union; whereas, however, since the directive of 1990 on package travel and Regulation (EEC) No. 295/91 establishing common rules for a denied-boarding compensation system in scheduled air transport ((OJ L 36, 8.2.1991, p. 5.)), the Commission has not made use of its right of initiative in the field,

B. whereas neither the priorities for consumer protection policy for 1996-1998 nor the Commission's working programme for 1998 - the political priorities of 15 October 1997 (COM(97)0517 - C4-0542/97) mention the protection of the tourist,

C. whereas, although tourism is one of the economic and cultural activities with the best present results and future prospects in Europe, the Commission has no action plan for European tourism, as the draft 'Philoxenia' programme was not adopted at the last Council of Tourism Ministers,

D. whereas Community intervention in the field of tourist protection is compatible with the principle of subsidiarity, since it does not affect policy as regards either reception facilities or promotion,

E. whereas protection of physical safety and commercial security in the tourism sector is not only dependent on regulating relations between consumers and entrepreneurs in the tourist industry but also on commercial relations between entrepreneurs in that industry,

F. whereas in recent years numerous indirect measures have been adopted or initiated at Community level to protect the physical safety and commercial security of tourists, but an overall frame of reference and updating measures are nonetheless required for the sector,

G. having regard to the various campaigns organized by the Commission's DG XXIV in favour of greater tourist protection and to the information on consumer rights in the tourist sector set out in the European consumer's guide to the single market (1994-1995),

H. whereas there should be closer coordination between the various Commission DGs with responsibilities in the field, as well as an action programme for the Tourism Unit within DG XXIII which could serve as a basis for the required closer coordination of powers and resources,

I. whereas the likely increase in tourist demand could lead over the next few years to an increasing number of errors and accidents, and whereas it is therefore necessary to take urgent action to reverse this trend via coordinated measures at Community level,

J. whereas, for the same reasons, it is essential to revise the conditions for access to justice for tourists and for professionals in the industry, with a view to clarifying and simplifying application and implementation of the existing legislation,

K. whereas the preservation of high standards of physical safety and commercial protection for tourists is not only a manifestation of respect for the public, but is also a key element in the improvement of the quality of supply in the tourist sector in the EU Member States, and, therefore, in the commercial competitiveness of the sector,

L. whereas, as the tourist industry develops, it is essential to protect the environment and natural resources, and whereas the tourist is the first party to be interested in enjoying a decent environment,

M. whereas, to ensure that tourism in the EU is based on quality of supply and that consumer protection rules are properly respected, it is essential, as a matter of priority, to promote appropriate training for staff employed in the tourism and travel sector,

N. whereas it is desirable to encourage dialogue between the representative associations of the various sectors concerned directly or indirectly with tourism, including consumers' associations, with a view to drawing up codes of conduct, planning information campaigns to prevent errors and accidents, and introducing arbitration arrangements to settle disputes between operators and users,

O. whereas tourists' interests are frequently damaged by flight delays (in many cases quite disproportionate), which eat into their holiday time,

P. whereas the protection of tourists should be not only a right of Community citizens but a feature of tourism in the EU Member States, from which all tourists, whether Community citizens or not, should be able to benefit,

Q. whereas it is essential to defend the rights of EU citizens as tourists, both inside and outside the Community,

R. whereas special consideration should be given to the protection of single women tourists,

1. Calls on the Commission to continue verifying, as a matter of the greatest urgency, compliance with Directive 90/314/EEC on package travel referred to above and to ask the Member State governments, in the light of problems encountered and legislative shortcomings related to the incorporation of that Directive, to ensure its proper application, with particular regard to the guarantee laid down in Article 7 concerning compensation in the event of the insolvency or bankruptcy of the travel organizer and/or retailer, resorting if necessary to the infringement procedure for Community law; calls on the Commission, in addition, to collect the views of the professional sectors concerned on the impact of the Directive;

2. Regrets the Commission's failure to operate an action programme for tourism and the fact that no reference is made to protection of the tourist as consumer or to the promotion of tourism as an economic, cultural and social activity in either its priorities for consumer policy for 1996-1998 or its working programme for 1998;

3. Calls on the Commission and Council to ensure that when drawing up Community policies affecting tourism they take account of the aspects related to tourist protection, as an element in the quality of supply in the EU tourist industry and an additional factor of attraction for the EU as a tourist destination;

4. Considers it essential to create a framework for Community measures to protect safety in tourist accommodation such as hotels, apartments, bungalows, campsites and caravans, with particular regard to individual travellers;

5. Considers it essential for all Community measures to protect safety in air, sea and coach transport, to be complied with and monitored; calls on the Commission to publish a compendium of such measures and to submit a report every two years on the degree of compliance achieved;

6. Welcomes the Commission's submission of a proposal to amend Regulation (EEC) No. 2299/89 on computerized reservation systems ((OJ C 267, 3.9.1997, p. 67.)) (COM(97)0246) and proposing its extension to include high-speed trains; considers it desirable, nonetheless, that its scope should include all usual forms of transport;

7. Calls on the Commission, in the light of the process of liberalization of the air transport sector, to ensure that travellers receive transparent information, especially concerning fares, ticket details (validity, reimbursement and modifications) and permitted baggage weight; similar conditions of transparency should apply to the liberalization processes for other means of transport;

8. Calls on the Commission, insofar as it has competence, to oblige EU airlines to inform passengers whenever they use aircraft not belonging to them and to ensure that tourists are compensated for all delays and inconveniences arising from such situations;

9. Calls on the Commission, in view of the likely increase in the number of airline passengers over the next few years, to lay down rules for the improved provision of information in cases of overbooking (to be indicated on tickets, legibly and in comprehensible language), to raise the levels of compensation payable to individual travellers affected, and to ensure that travellers are offered a better-quality service; the percentage of overbookings currently authorized should be reduced; all these rules should also apply to charter flights;

10. Calls on the Commission and the Council to draw up rules revising the system for allocating slots at Community airports, so as to ensure that it is not always charter or tourist flights which are affected by the most unfavourable scheduling;

11. Calls on the Commission to adopt measures similar to those requested in paragraph 9 as regards overbooking in the hotel sector; considers that the Commission should submit to Parliament and the Council the results of the study on overbooking in hotels and other tourist accommodation and assess the results of the code of practice drawn up on the subject by the European Confederation of Hotels and the European Confederation of Organizers and Retailers;

12. Calls on the Commission to submit, on the basis of the activities of the European Committee for Standardization, a proposal concerning terminology, classification and quality criteria for tourist accommodation and travel agencies;

13. Calls on the Commission to study the problems arising from the increase in sales of services via the Internet and to make appropriate proposals;

14. Calls on the Commission to undertake the necessary studies with a view to setting up a guarantee fund for cases of airline bankruptcy, and a similar fund for travel agency bankruptcies; such a fund should have sufficient resources, which should be made immediately available to cover the cost of the services agreed by contract which have ceased to be provided;

15. Calls on the Member States to demand that travel agencies offer certain minimum standards and requisites (e.g. sufficient deposits and guarantees), so as to eliminate 'cowboy' operators from the sector;

16. Calls on the Commission to publish an information document, which should be easy to understand and use, setting out all the Community measures relating to the direct or indirect protection of the physical safety of tourists in the EU, their rights as consumers and their duties as users, the transparency of commercial information in the tourist sector and the right to seek and obtain justice, with a view to its distribution in the Member States and third countries; any similar measures adopted by individual Member States should also be compiled and published;

17. Considers, in particular, that consumers should be better informed on clauses relating to cancellation of bookings and/or holidays and on the relevant insurance contracts;

18. Calls on the Commission to verify the proper implementation in the Member States of the European Parliament and Council Directive 94/47/EC on the protection of purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts relating to the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a timeshare basis ((OJ L 280, 29.10.1994, p. 83.)), and to assess its results;

19. Calls on the Member States to legislate to apply the general law on tourism to timeshare establishments, since that arrangement implies a tourism service;

20. Calls on the Commission to submit a communication detailing the best practices and experiences on the subject in the Member States;

21. Calls on the Commission to submit proposals concerning the promotion of rural tourism, especially in remote and very remote areas and in transfrontier Euregios;

22. Calls on the Commission to ensure that its policy for promoting equal opportunities pays attention to the specific problems which children, senior citizens and persons with disabilities may encounter when travelling on holiday; congratulates the Commission on its initiative of publishing a handbook for the tourist industry ('For a Europe accessible to tourists with disabilities'), and encourages it to undertake more activities along these lines;

23. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that a doctor is present at major tourist accommodation centres and that there is rapid access to medical services from smaller and remote centres in case of emergency;

24. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the entire tourist industry to continue their work of awareness-raising and action against sex tourism, since the improvement of safety and tourists' rights requires the correct application of their obligations;

25. Calls on the Commission to examine the possibility of introducing Community formulas for out-of-court arbitration in certain conflicts relating to the tourist industry, along the lines of the Green Paper on 'Access of consumers to justice and the settlement of consumer disputes in the single market' (COM(93)0576), while not ruling out the creation in the medium term of a Community arbitration body;

26. Calls on the Commission to coordinate the various measures in the field of tourist protection, since it is affected by a number of different policies (free movement of citizens, consumer protection, environment policy, transport policy, regional policy, etc); believes that the adoption of a legal framework is required to this end, as well as closer coordination between the relevant DGs;

27. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take action, including a Community financial programme, to guarantee assistance to the tourist at major tourist sites, so as to offer Union citizens and third-country tourists a visible and effective degree of protection; the creation of a network of information and assistance counters at European level, possibly managed on a basis of public/private-sector partnership, would bring about a significant improvement in the quality of supply in the tourist industry; in the interim, the Commission and the Member States should promote the emergence of a decentralized network of tourist assistance units, with staff who are able to deal with emergencies, handle complaints, cooperate with local offices or local and national police forces, and evaluate any problems which have occurred and the tourists' degree of satisfaction;

28. Calls on the Commission, the Member States and the competent authorities at regional and local level to enhance the profile of information offices located in tourist areas, manning them with staff who can offer more comprehensive assistance (including legal advice);

29. Stresses that the creation of a single emergency telephone number (112) for the whole European Union would bring about a considerable improvement in the protection of tourists' safety;

30. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote the inclusion of the physical and commercial protection of tourists in training programmes related to tourism intended for those wishing to work in the sector;

31. Calls on the Commission to provide financial assistance and advice for the development of telematic links between consumers' associations in the different Member States;

32. Calls on the Commission to organize annually, in cooperation with Parliament and the associations of the sector, a conference on the quality of supply in the EU tourist industry, to include, in particular, discussion of the main aspects of tourist protection, a review of the previous year's activities and the exchange of practices and experiences in the sector;

33. Calls upon the Member States to create a system for harmonizing the amount of compensation payable to EU citizens who are the victims of crime where physical harm has been inflicted;

34. Calls upon the Member States to ensure that court proceedings are speeded up from what is at the moment a painfully slow process so that EU nationals who are either victims of a crime or accused of committing one may have immediate and constant access to interpretation and translation at no cost to themselves;

35. Calls on the Commission to indicate its views on the protection of tourists when euro coins and notes are introduced in connection with the establishment of EMU on 1 January 2002, given that tourists are particularly vulnerable to fraud;

36. Calls on the Commission to submit a report on the measures taken by the Community to protect EU citizens travelling as tourists in third countries, for example by coordinating and rationalizing services for EU citizens provided by EU embassies in third countries;

37. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.