BELGIUM: EU transport ministers will strengthen coordination to avoid repeat of ash cloud chaos

Record ID: 555854

  • Title: BELGIUM: EU transport ministers will strengthen coordination to avoid repeat of ash cloud chaos
  • Date: 5th May 2010
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MAY 4, 2010) (REUTERS) BUSSEREAU SEATED JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH TRANSPORT MINISTER, DOMINIQUE BUSSEREAU, SAYING: "I indicated that there was a two-day delay in activating European Union meetings. Thankfully Eurocontrol and bilateral meetings between ministers allowed us to do things. It was not a delay linked to the commission nor to the Spanish presidency. It was due to the inertia of the system and that some countries, for whatever reason that you can probably guess, preferred to take their time. Now we have a consensus and tomorrow, if there were another crisis, Europe has given itself the political means to intervene faster."
  • Embargoed: 20th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: International Relations,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAC7GIIS8BIIAY019FG03Z39WKY
  • Story Text: EU transport ministers said in Brussels on Tuesday (May 4) they plan to establish a more coordinated mechanism to speed up response to the risk of an ash cloud paralysing air transport but rejected a proposal to share the burden of the cost to the airlines grounded in Europe for days.
    French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said France had been critical of the lack of coordination and slow pace of the response to opening airspaces last month.
    A few days after the April ash cloud paralysed the airlines industry Eurocontrol changed its safety advice but some national authorities were still relying on different sources of advice and the airport chaos continued for a few days more.
    "I indicated that there was a two-day delay in activating European Union meetings. Thankfully Eurocontrol and bilateral meetings between ministers allowed us to do things. It was not a delay linked to the commission nor to the Spanish presidency. It was due to the inertia of the system and that some countries, for whatever reason that you can probably guess, preferred to take their time. Now we have a consensus and tomorrow, if there were another crisis, Europe has given itself the political means to intervene faster" Bussereau said.
    Speaking on behalf of the rotating EU presidency spanish Transport Minister Jose Blanco Lopez explained how would the EU strengthen coordination.
    "Setting up a crisis coordination cell immediately. This crisis coordination unit, headed up by the commission will involve Eurocontrol, European air safety agencies and other stake holders from the aviation sector. This coordination cell will organise coordination in the event of a sudden crisis and be able to respond immediately and take any necessary measures. Then we have the nomination without delay of the functional airspace bloc's coordinator so as to ensure rapid implementation and give a coordinated response to recommendations of the coordination cell. We also have to establish the function of a European network manager before the end of 2010," he said.
    Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said state aid for affected airlines would be assessed on a case by case basis but one diplomat said there had been very few demands for help.
    He also said the ministers rejected a proposal to share the burden of the cost.
    The executive European Commission estimates last month's disruptions to air traffic cost the industry 1.5-2.5 billion euros ($2-3.3 billion).
    It proposed helping airlines ride out their cashflow problems by deferring charges paid to air traffic controllers.
    Alternatively Kallas said he wanted to create a pan-European transport network so as to move passengers faster in case of another such crisis.
    "We need more Europe to remove transport bottlenecks, we need more Europe to create pan-European networks and put in place pan-European mobility planning. Status quo is not enough. We will never compromise on safety but we have to do everything possible to safeguard our citizen's freedom to travel," Kallas said.
    The special meeting was set up as Ireland and parts of Scotland closed some of its airspace after another Icelandic volcano eruption.
    Kallas said the response was already faster than when the first cloud hit Europe's skies after applying the new ash concentration measurement rules established by Eurocontrol to ease air traffic in April.
    "We looked the maps today and clearly we can say that if we used the same methodology as we used 14th of November (he means April) we could close again very large part of European airspace," Kallas said.
    The EU's executive will now push forward its "Single Skies" package to unite national airspaces into just nine blocks by June 2012.
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