COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports

2002/0013 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 of 18 January 1993 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports

1- BACKGROUND

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council (document COM(2002) 7 final - 2002/0013 COD): // [14.1.2002].

Date of the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee: // [21.3.2002].

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: // [6.2.2002].

Date of adoption of the common position: // [25.3.2002].

2- OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL

The Commission proposes to modify the current rules regarding slot allocation at Community airports, so as to exempt two scheduling seasons, summer 2001 and winter 2001-2002, affected adversely by the events of 11 September 2001 from the application of Article 10(3) of the Regulation, on the basis of which slots with "grandfather status" are calculated at the end of the scheduling season. The proposal aims at exempting from the application of the "use-it-or-lose-it" rule these two scheduling seasons for the purpose of the slot usage calculation, so as to allow air carriers to adjust their services during the scheduling seasons affected by these events.

3- COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION

The Council has amended the Commission proposal by introducing an explicit reference to slots allocated to air carriers at the date of 11 September 2001 as a date of reference for allocation of slots for the scheduling seasons in 2002, summer 2002 and winter 2002-2003.

In the Commission's view, this amendment does not change either the substance or the purpose of the proposal. The date of 11 September 2001 falls clearly within the summer 2001 scheduling season. Slots for this season were already being used on 11 September 2001. Also, at that date, slots had been already allocated during the IATA Scheduling Conference (held in June 2001) for the winter 2001-2002 scheduling season. Furthermore, the date for returning slots to the slot pool, 31 August 2001, as provided for in Article 10(4) of the Regulation, had already passed. Therefore, at the date of 11 September 2001, air carriers had already fixed slot portfolios for the winter 2001-2002 scheduling season.

Without the exemption from the application of Article 10(3) of the Regulation, air carriers risk losing to the slot pool at the end of summer 2001 and winter 2001-2002 scheduling seasons unused slots during these seasons. Accordingly, air carriers are given the right to claim at the end of the summer 2001 and winter 2001-2002 seasons the same series of slots as they were allocated in the beginning irrespective of their utilisation. For this reason, coordinators are required to accept that air carriers be allocated the same series of slots at the beginning of the scheduling seasons in 2002, i.e. summer 2002 and winter 2002-2003. However, given that the exemption covers only the scheduling seasons in 2001, air carriers will have to fully observe the usage requirements of the regulation during 2002 seasons and subsequent seasons, otherwise they will not be in a position to establish "grandfather status" at the end of these seasons.

4- CONCLUSION

For these reasons, the Commission can support the common position of the Council.