Debate: Decent working and employment conditions in the aviation sector - Impact of the COVID- crisis on aviation
Date: THURSDAY, 8 JULY 2021
Speaker: Adina-Ioana Vălean
Language: EN

As Commissioner for Transport, I have learned that everyone is very interested in transport generally, and everyone has an opinion on transport. Of all the sectors and interconnection in transport, I would say that aviation creates more interest for everyone. Some love it, some do not love aviation that much but, for sure, nearly everyone has used, or is using either the services of aviation – meaning flying – or at least products that were transported by air.  The importance of the sector overall in our lives is something we cannot deny. This is a sector of highly—skilled people and high—end technologies, so it is a success of our European story, and it is here to stay, as much as the others. Of course, we had the crisis, which brought particularly significant challenges to the aviation sector, to the people who work there and all horizontal industry working for aviation.  I recall that we were all so shocked at the beginning, and were concerned about what we could do to help. Now, opinions have nuanced a bit, and some are asking if the help was good enough and if it is creating fair competition or not. Should we change the rules? Some are saying we should bring in further regulation or try to steer things from Brussels.  There are some things that are true. Aviation is required, as are other sectors, to decarbonise itself. It is required to have high standards in social matters, and we are on a good path towards this end. It is still true that it has to exist first in order to improve. The whole COVID crisis made us think and introduce the resilience factor into our own policies. I’m saying all this because we are, of course, now seeing the strategy that we are going to put forward – the revision of Air Services Regulation – with the aims which we discussed, and I agree with you that we have to tackle this. All the reports are showing that we have to look at it. As I said, for example, in my initial statement, the fact is that we have to define the notion of operational base and other issues around the subjects covered by the Air Services Regulation.  But before doing that, we have to have an evaluation on the crisis situation and on the effects of the crisis. That’s why we ordered a study, which is going to be conducted this year. Someone here asked me to give an exact timeline, so I’m telling you that the Commission proposal can be expected in the first quarter of 2022.  According to our better regulation standards, we will have this separate study. The work on the study and the impact assessment will be held in parallel. The two will go together so that, by the end of next year, we can propose something which would be honestly helpful. This is on the Service Regulation. Some of you mentioned the topic of the decarbonisation of aviation. You can expect the ‘Fit for 55’ package, which would include – at least from our transport perspective – the issue of EU aviation, with the aim of helping the decarbonisation of the fuels used. Then, of course, there are other pricing measures, probably proposed by other DGs. In the end, there is no silver bullet for the decarbonisation of aviation. There is a basket of measures, but we have to be reasonable and smart, because we want to keep the competitiveness of the sector, we want to keep the highly—skilled jobs, and we have to take all these actions together with the industry. It cannot be done in an office in Brussels. We have a high responsibility towards the industry, and it is to help them to have the competitiveness and the economic viability to make the changes and the investments needed for the future of this transport sector. Talking about the socially more-responsible sector, it should be recalled that achieving this is not something the Commission can do on its own. This requires the active participation and contribution of all parties concerned. Member States, the Commission, the other institutions, airlines, employers, workers’ organisations – everyone should act together towards achieving this goal. It’s not something which can be produced in a laboratory and then slotted into the system.  Again, I’m pleased by the strong interest of the European Parliament in this matter. I’m looking forward to working with you in the years to come for a successful review of the Service Regulation, which would help support the recovery and resilience of the industry in the short, medium and long term. Thank you very much. I’m looking forward to our next debate.