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 Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on airport charges
Date: 2008-07-08
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: airport, charges for use of infrastructure, common transport policy, transport regulations

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 8.7.2008 
COM(2008) 455 final 

2007/0013 (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 directive of the European 
Parliament and the Council on airport charges 

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2007/0013 (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 directive on airport charges 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2006)820 final – 2007/0013COD): 

29 January 2007 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

26 September 2007 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

15 January 2008 

Date of adoption of the political agreement : 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

7 April 2008 

23 June 2008 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The objective of the proposal adopted by the Commission on 24 January 2007 is to facilitate 
the discussions on airport charges between airports and airlines. The proposal introduces some 
basic rules on the procedures for levying charges. These rules are based on generally accepted 
principles  already  endorsed  by  Member  States  in  the  council  of  the  International  Civil 
Aviation  Organization.  The  first  principle  aims  at  ensuring  regular  consultations  between 
airports  and  airlines  on  charges  in  which  both  parties  can  explain  and  develop  their  views. 
The objective is to ensure that airports have consulted and informed airlines before deciding 
on airport charges. The second principle concerns transparency on the elements that form the 
basis  of  airport  charges.  This  information  will  be  discussed  in  regular  consultations. 
Prohibition of discrimination between airlines is the third principle. 

The proposal also suggests the establishment of an independent regulatory authority in each 
Member State. This authority shall oversee the levying of charges and ensure that the relevant 
provisions  of  the  directive  are  complied  with.  The  authority  will  consequently  act  upon 
complaints on airport charges from the parties. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

The  common  position  adopted  by  the  Council  on  23  June  2008  was  mainly  based  on  the 
general approach reached by the Council on 30 November 2007. It also reflects a significant 
number of the amendments proposed by the European Parliament, most notably on the scope 

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of the proposal, on airport network, on modulation of charges and on the functioning of the 
authority. 

Some  of  the  modifications  improve  and  clarify  the  proposal;  however,  there  are  some 
significant modifications introduced in the common position compared to the initial proposal: 

–  in  article  1,  on  the  scope  of  the  directive,  the  Council  proposed  that  the  directive  should 
apply to the largest airport in each Member State and to any other airport with an annual 
traffic  of  more  than  five  million  passengers.  The  Commission  had  proposed  that  the 
directive  should  apply  to  all  airports  with  an  annual  traffic  of  more  than  1  million 
passengers  or  more  than  25  000  tons  of  cargo.  The  Commission  still  considers  that  the 
initially proposed scope  would better support the objectives of the directive and be more 
aligned with other Community instruments on similar matters; 

–  all provisions on security charges were deleted. The Council argues that these provisions 
may not be necessary following the adoption of EC Regulation 300/08 on common rules in 
the field of civil aviation security. The Commission will before 31 December 2008 further 
examine security charges in a comprehensive report on financing of aviation security. This 
report will if appropriate be accompanied by a legislative proposal. The Commission can 
therefore accept the position of the Council to delete the provisions on security charges in 
the existing proposal on airport charges; 

–  in article 3, the provision on non-discrimination is amended to allow modulation of charges 
for  general  and  public  interest,  such  as  for  environmental  reasons.  In  principle,  the 
Commission can accept this provided that such modulation is based on relevant, objective 
and transparent criteria; 

–  an  article  on  groups  of  airports  was  added  authorising  Member  States  to  introduce  a 
common system of charges for airports organised in a network or to apply the same level 
of charges for airports serving the same city. This article could be further discussed in the 
second  reading  of  the  text,  in  particular  to  avoid  that  its  application  leads  to  any  kind  of 
abuse of discrimination; 

–  in article 4, a provision was introduced in paragraph 5 to avoid unnecessary duplication of 
appeal procedures. The Commission would have preferred to have a clearer definition of 
the conditions for the application of this paragraph 5, whereby a Member state may decide 
not to apply some other paragraphs of this article, thus rendering the authority inoperative. 
This should be done by including a definition of the concept of 'economic oversight'; 

–  in  article  10,  the  procedures  of  the  authority  are  more  detailed  and  were  improved.  This 
will facilitate the implementation of the directive into national legislation and ensure better 
coherence between Member States; 

–  in  article  12,  the  time  period  for  transposing  the  directive  into  national  legislation  was 
extended from 18 to 36 months. The Commission considers this extension as rather long. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Council adopted its common position by qualified majority; however Luxemburg argued 
that the amended scope of the directive discriminates between airports with comparable traffic 
data in different Member States. The Commission considers that the common position reflects 

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the  main  objectives  of  its  proposal  at  those  airports  where  it  will  apply;  nevertheless,  the 
significant  reduction  of  the  scope  also  will  mean  that  these  objectives  will  not  be  met  at 
several airports in the European Union. 

The  Commission  considers  that  the  only  way  to  allow  the  procedure  to  continue  is  by  not 
opposing it. 

5. 

STATEMENTS BY THE COMMISSION 

The Commission made the following statement at the Council meeting on 30 November 2007: 

The  Commission  will  assess  whether,  as  a  result  of  the  implementation  of  the  [proposed] 
Directive, the airports referred to in Article 1(2) are being unjustifiably disadvantaged vis-à-
vis other airports with comparable traffic data of other Member States with which they are in 
competition.  Where  appropriate,  the  Commission  will  take  adequate  initiatives  in  order  to 
restore  a  level  playing  field  including,  if  necessary,  making  proposals  for  reviewing  the 
Directive's thresholds. 

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