Proposal for a Council Directive on airport charges (97/C 257/02) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(97) 154 final - 97/0127(SYN)

(Submitted by the Commission on 20 June 1997)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 84 (2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 189c of the Treaty in cooperation with the European Parliament,

1. Whereas the Community has progressively introduced a common air transport policy, in particular for the purpose of completing the single market, under Article 7a of the Treaty;

2. Whereas the internal market comprises an area without internal borders in which the free movement of people, goods, services and capital is guaranteed;

3. Whereas a Community framework is needed to ensure that fair an equitable market conditions apply both to users and passengers and to the owners and management bodies of airports;

4. Whereas, however, these rules must comply with the principle of proportionality in accordance with the third paragraph of Article 3b of the Treaty and should therefore be limited to the laying down of fundamental principles;

5. Whereas, in addition, the administrative management and the financial situation of the smallest airports do not justify the application of the Community framework;

6. Whereas, within this market, there should be no discrimination between intra-Community flights for the provision of equivalent services;

7. Whereas airports may be managed as commercial undertakings which must strive to be efficient in order to make their activities profitable and to better satisfy market requirements and passengers' needs;

8. Whereas, however, within that market, airports are exposed to limited competition;

9. Whereas, among their various activities, the main task of airports is to ensure the handling of aircraft from landing to take-off so as to enable users to carry out their air transport business;

10. Whereas, for this purpose, airports offer a certain number of facilities and services directly related to the operation of aircraft, the costs of which they must be able to cover;

11. Whereas, unlike other types of airport revenue or charges which may be levied on users, airport charges provide compensation for the facilities and services provided by the airport;

12. Whereas such services and facilities can, by their nature, only be provided by the airport itself; whereas, in view of this monopoly situation, the level of airport charges must be in relation to the costs borne for the provision of such facilities and services, taking into consideration the objective of economic and social cohesion;

13. Whereas an airport must also be able to cover all of the costs required for its sound operation in terms of efficiency, safety and the environment by modulating the level of the charges;

14. Whereas it is therefore important to ensure the transparency of the costs to which such services or facilities give rise; whereas, therefore, any changes made to the system or level of airport charges must be explained to airport users;

15. Whereas, at the same time, to enable airports to fulfil their task of managing the facilities and better satisfying users' requirements, the airport's management body must receive sufficient information regarding users' forecasts and objectives concerning the airport;

16. Whereas such changes or investment proposed by the airport must be explained in the framework of consultation procedures between the management bodies and airport users;

17. Whereas the airport's management body must be able to retain control of the management and funding of its facilities;

18. Whereas it is necessary to take appropriate steps to ensure that infringements of Community law carry penalties which are effective, proportionate and dissuasive;

19. Whereas this Directive should not affect the application of the provisions of the Treaty, and in particular Articles 85 to 94 thereof,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

Aim and scope

The aim of this Directive is to ensure compliance with the principles of non-discrimination, cost-relatedness and transparency as regards airport charges.

It applies to any airport or airport system located in a territory subject to the provisions of the Treaty and open to commercial traffic. However, Articles 4 to 7 apply only to airports with annual traffic of at least 250 000 passenger movements or 25 000 tonnes of freight.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

1. 'airport` means any land specially developed for the landing, take-off and manoeuvring of aircraft, including any related facilities it may contain for aircraft traffic and service requirements and the facilities needed to accommodate commercial air services;

2. 'management body` means the body which, whether or not in conjunction with other activities, has the task under national laws or regulations of administering and managing the airport facilities and coordinating and controlling the activities of the various operators present at the airport or within the airport system concerned;

3. 'intra-Community air service` means any commercial, scheduled or non-scheduled flight between two Community airports;

4. 'airport charges` means the sums collected at an airport for the benefit of the management body and paid by the airport's users ensuring the remuneration of facilities and services which, by their nature, can only be provided by the airport and which are related to handling passengers and freight, landing, lighting, parking of aircraft and, where appropriate, the security of passengers as well as the environmental effects of handling aircraft and passengers, excluding any amounts paid for air navigation or meteorological services;

5. 'airport system` means two or more airports grouped together to serve the same city or conurbation, as defined in Article 2 (m) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2408/92 (1);

6. 'airport user` means any natural or legal person carrying passengers, mail and/or freight by air from or to the airport concerned.

Article 3

Non-discrimination

Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the same level of airport charges is applied at airports to equivalent intra-Community air services in terms of the aircraft type and/or characteristics, the distance flown and/or the administrative and customs formalities.

Article 4

Cost-relatedness

1. Member States shall ensure that the level of airport charges collected at airports or in the airport systems is set in a reasonable relation to the overall cost of the services and facilities which these charges intended to cover. When determining the level of such costs, particular account shall be taken of:

(a) the cost of financing the facilities, including depreciation in the value of the assets during the period concerned and the financing of any facilities for which the project and the date of commencement of the works have been duly agreed and any administrative permits, where appropriate, have been issued;

(b) the financial charges;

(c) the expenditure on operation and maintenance;

(d) the general administrative charges and various taxes;

(e) a reasonable return on the capital invested.

2. Without prejudice to the application of the competition rules of the Treaty, the airport charges applicable in the major national airport of a Member State can be established at a level which permits the management body, in order to promote economic and social cohesion, to support financially the levels of airport charges in regional airports in the same Member State, on condition that:

(a) this financial support comes from revenue other than the airport charges in the major airport; and/or

(b) this support comes from airport charges, provided that they are established in conformity with paragraph 1; or

(c) otherwise, when the conditions referred to in points (a) and (b) are not fulfilled and when the subsidies granted by public authorities are not sufficient, the regional airports concerned have an annual traffic of less than 300 000 passenger movements or 30 000 tonnes of freight and on condition that the annual traffic of transfer or transit passengers at the major airport represent at least 5 % of the total traffic at that airport.

3. The costs shall be determined using the principles of accounting and evaluation generally accepted in each of the Member States.

Article 5

Modulations

1. By derogation from Article 4, the management bodies may include the external environmental costs due to air traffic and modulate the charges to reflect the requirements in terms of management of the airport facilities or any changes in demand and use of the airport during a given period.

Member States shall ensure that the modulations are not designed to generate additional revenue for the airport.

2. The management body may also, as part of its commercial policy,

(a) take account of all or part of its income that is not derived from airport charges when establishing the total level of its airport charges;

(b) grant discounts in conformity with the provisions of the Treaty.

3. Any modulation in the level of the airport charges shall be applied in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

Article 6

Transparency

1. In order to improve the quality of the service provided to airport users, Member States shall ensure that the management bodies provide each airport user with information on the components serving as a basis for determining the level of the airport charges. This information shall include:

(a) a clear list of the various services provided by the airport in return for the airport charge levied; and

(b) the method of calculation used by the management body.

2. The management body shall in particular provide airport users or the associations representing them with information concerning:

(a) the amount of each category of airport charges collected at the airport;

(b) the total number of staff deployed to services which give rise to the collection of airport charges;

(c) forecasts of the situation at the airport as regards airport charges, traffic growth and any proposed investments.

3. Member States shall ensure that airport users submit information to the management body concerning in particular:

(a) forecasts as regards traffic;

(b) forecasts as to the composition of their fleet;

(c) their development projects at the airport;

(d) their requirements at the airport concerned.

Article 7

Consultation

1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to arrange, at each airport, a procedure for consultation between the management body and airport users. The aim is to seek the views of airport users before the decision to modify the system or the level of airport charges is taken. These views do not bind the authority responsible for taking a decision with regard to the airport changes.

Such consultation shall be held at least once a year.

2. Member States shall take the necessary steps to ensure that an airport informs airport users or the organizations representing them of any decision to change the system or level of airport charges at least two months before the change takes effect.

3. Member States shall also ensure that, in the event of disagreement over the decision, airport users are able to request to be consulted a second time.

Article 8

Penalties

Member States shall lay down a system of penalties applicable in the event of infringement of the national provisions transposing this Directive and shall take all necessary steps to ensure their implementation. The penalties shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

Member States shall notify the Commission of those provisions before 1 January 2002 and of any subsequent amendment relating thereto as soon as possible.

Article 9

Implementation

1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to conform with this Directive before 1 January 2002. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.

When Member States adopt these provisions, these shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such reference at the time of their official publication. The procedure for such reference shall be adopted by Member States.

2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the essential provisions of domestic law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive. The Commission shall inform the other Member States thereof.

Article 10

Report and revision

1. The Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the operation of this Directive before 1 January 2004 as well as, when appropriate, any suitable proposal.

2. Member States and the Commission shall cooperate in the application of this Directive, particularly as regards the collection of information for the report mentioned in paragraph 1.

Article 11

Entry into force

This Directive shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 12

Addressees

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

(1) OJ No L 240, 24. 8. 1992, p. 8.