Negotiators from the Member States and the European Parliament are close to reaching an agreement on air passenger rights, diplomatic sources learned on Friday. It appears that passengers will also be entitled to compensation in the future for delays of more than three hours.
Source: Belga
The ambassadors of the Member States on Friday approved a text that offers passengers compensation for delays of three hours or more: 250 euros for flights up to 1,500 kilometers, 400 euros for flights up to 3,500 kilometers and 600 euros for long-haul flights of more than 3,500 kilometers.
However, since last year, the Member States had been pushing to guarantee compensation only after a delay of four hours. Moreover, they also wanted lower compensation amounts. However, the Member States encountered a rejection from the European Parliament, which stuck to the current rules and ultimately won the argument.
MEP Kathleen Van Brempt (Vooruit) states that 60 percent of travelers would have lost their right to compensation if the member states had taken their action. “Despite pressure from Member States and heavy lobbying from airlines, Parliament has succeeded in protecting the rights of consumers,” she said in a response.
Form
Airlines must also provide passengers with more information about their rights, but MEPs have had to give up their demand that passengers be given a pre-completed claim form. “Extremely unfortunate,” says Van Brempt. “Many passengers today do not know their rights or give up because the procedures are too complicated.”
The EU has had legislation on passenger rights since 2004, but in practice it has not always been easy to enforce it. Some provisions and definitions were not clear, leading to uneven application of the rules and numerous disputes between passengers and airlines.
The Commission had already tabled an update to the rules in 2013 (!), but the Member States were never able to agree. In fact, the ministers had not discussed the file since 2020. Only since last year have the negotiations regained momentum with the new proposal from the Member States.
Representatives of the Member States and the European Parliament will meet again on Monday to ratify the compromise. Afterwards, the two legislative institutions of the European Union must finally approve the agreement.