MEPs will reconsider a proposal from the European Commission to liberalise airport ground-handling services in April, following a narrow vote on Tuesday (19 March) by the European Parliament’s transport committee to resubmit it with modifications. The Commission’s proposal would require airports with more than five million passengers per year to use a minimum of three ground-handling companies, up from the current minimum of two introduced in 1996. 

The Parliament voted in December in Strasbourg to send the proposal back to the committee, following protests by unions claiming it would lead to a deterioration in work standards. The transport committee had already voted to reject the ground-handling section of the Commission’s proposal for airports legislation, which also seeks to liberalise gate slots and control the use of noise restrictions. But Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport, had hoped to convince the full Parliament to overturn that decision.

The committee voted this week 19 to 17, with eight abstentions, to approve an amendment to the Commission’s proposal so that it would apply only to airports with more than 15 million passengers per year, instead of the Commission’s threshold of five million. The committee position also extends the implementation period and inserts a guarantee that existing collective agreements with unions must be honoured by any new ground-handling company.

Compromise

Centre-right Polish MEP Artur Zasada, who is guiding the legislation through the Parliament, said this compromise should be acceptable to MEPs. “I pushed for more liberalisation, but compromises had to be made,” he said. “We added very good social provisions, minimum quality standards and one common procedure for applicants.”

Speaking after the vote on Tuesday, Kallas said he also hoped the proposal could now be accepted by the Parliament. “We have worked very hard to find a suitable compromise that can develop airports and airport capacity,” he said. “These discussions have been very difficult. But I think that now this document will be finalised and we’ll have some positive changes.”

Kallas has said that the other two elements of the airports package cannot go forward without the ground-handling proposal. The European Transport Workers Federation said they have not yet decided whether to call for the full Parliament to reject the new text when they meet in April.

“We are not completely happy with the outcome to say the least,” said Enrique Carmona, ETWF co-ordinating officer. “In fact I’m afraid that many members will not consider this as an advance from the position we had in December.”

They want greater social protection than what is in the committee position.

The full Parliament will hold a vote during the week of 15 April.

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