Airport charges: Member States should bear any extra security costs

Aviation security measures that go beyond common EU requirements should be paid for by Member States, not passengers, says Parliament's Transport Committee.
MEPs want national governments to bear the cost of any security measures that are "more stringent" than common, basic EU standards.

Member States would remain free to decide how to share the costs of the basic measures already covered by existing EU rules (metal and explosive detectors, sniffer dogs, hand searches, liquid screeners) but would be required to foot the bill if they chose to introduce body scanners, for instance, which are not yet listed as a common EU aviation security method.

These proposals are contained in amendments to a Commission draft directive being tabled by the Transport Committee for a vote by the full Parliament in Strasbourg next Tuesday.

The committee also wishes to include all commercial airports in this directive, against the wishes of many Member States, who would prefer to restrict its scope to airports serving more than 5 million passengers per year.

Members also strongly support better pricing transparency. They insist that passengers should be able to know exactly what percentage of the fare will pay for airport security.

Many EU governments are opposed to a directive that would require public financing of security charges, since they are currently free to apply their own rules: in most cases the airport authorities now pass on the security costs to airlines, which then pass them on to passengers. But MEPs are determined to take the fight all the way to the Parliament/Council conciliation committee if necessary.

Procedure: Ordinary legislative, first readingDebate: 19 April 2010Vote: 20 April 2010

Iveta Ķelpe
www.europarl.lv

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