BRUSSELS, Oct 8: The European Commission is to recommend on Wednesday extremely limited public aid to the air transport industry because the sector does not need such massive help as in the United States, a European source said on Monday.
The commission’s proposals, which would be officially revealed on Wednesday after a weekly meeting of commissioners, would serve as a basis for discussions between transport ministers to be held on October 16 in Luxembourg.
The same source said the European transport commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, and the competition commissioner, Mario Monti, were to suggest an aid plan limiting compensation for lost sales to the four days following the September 11 attacks in the United States.
The plan would also extend to the end of December war and terrorism-related insurance aid to companies in the aviation industry granted by EU member countries.
The plan also included non-financial measures such as a relaxation of rules concerning slots at airports. This would enable airlines temporarily abandoning slots to retain their rights to use them.
Agreements on the fixing of schedules between companies on certain routes could also be examined, but only on a case-by-case basis, the source said.
The commission could also authorise other aid if distortions in competition appear between European companies in the aviation industry and those in the United States, where $15 billion of aid has been made available to the sector by the US government.
The European Commission has said in the wake of the attacks in the United States that it wanted to avoid state-aid programmes for air transport companies in trouble.
PARIS: The European Union is still in a phase of economic growth and the European Central Bank (ECB) still has room to manoeuvre to lower interest rates, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders, who is also president of the euro-zone Eurogroupe finance ministers, said on Monday.
Reynders told the French newspaper Liberation: We are coming from a period of stronger growth, which can give the impression of a recession. But we must not forget that growth is still there, even if we can’t forsee what the international situation will be next year.
Reynders also said: Even the darkest outlooks do not forsee a period of recession for the euro zone, but slowed growth.
In the euro zone, there is still room for the ECB, room that should be kept for it by not letting deficits slip. Moreover, it (the ECB) has announced that inflation is going to continue to fall. So, in the coming weeks or months, there could be a new cut in (interest) rates, he said.
Reynders was referring to concern that some euro-zone countries will have difficulty in containing public deficits to agreed targets this year.
The ECB has warned consistently that euro-zone governments should have made greater efforts to move towards public surpluses in times of growth.—AFP
