The European Commission is asking for additional time to examine France’s project. The aviation sector is jubilant, while environmentalists fear yet another unraveling of a law that is not very ambitious.
One of the measures called for by the Citizens’ Convention is failing. The ban on domestic flights in France in the event of an alternative train of less than two and a half hours, provided for by the “climate and resilience” law is stuck at the European level. France would like to apply it from the end of March. But Brussels announced this Friday to open an investigation into this measure, to the satisfaction of part of the air transport sector which disputes the relevance of it to fight against climate change.
The European Commission “Has decided to carry out an in-depth analysis of the file, and will open a formal dialogue with the French authorities” after which it will make a decision, said spokesperson Stefan De Keersmaecker. “It’s a procedural step” which does not prejudge the final decision to prohibit or not the measure, he said. The French authorities had notified their decree in Brussels on November 17.
“This article of law breaks with one of the founding principles of Europe”
The air lobby is jubilant. The French Airports Union (UAF) lodged a complaint on September 17, jointly and severally with the European branch of the International Airports Council (ACI Europe). UAF President Thomas Juin expressed his satisfaction on Friday, saying that he was “Not surprised” the Commission decision: article 145 of the “climate and resilience” law, adopted in July in France, “Is based on a legal reasoning which seems to us very questionable”. According to him, “This article of law breaks with one of the founding principles of Europe, that is to say the freedom to provide services”.
The article provides for the prohibition of “Regular public air transport services for passengers concerning all air links within French territory, the journey of which is also provided on the national rail network without a connection and by several daily connections lasting less than two and a half hours”.
The UAF recalled that article 145 was based on a European text, article 20 of regulation n ° 1008-2008, providing for exceptions to the exercise of traffic rights. “In the event of serious damage to the environment”, but for “Local, temporary reasons” not applying to global warming, according to the organization.
“We are very happy” of the Commission’s decision “Which will open the discussion and the debate with the French State”, added Jean-François Dominiak, president of the Syndicate of Autonomous Airlines (Scara). The organization, which claims to represent half of the French companies, announced on November 25 that it had also filed an appeal in Brussels, making the same arguments as the UAF.
Exceptions for correspondence
On the other hand, this survey saddens environmentalists. “The Commission is postponing the examination of the draft ban on domestic flights. This delay risks discouraging regulations in favor of lower emissions! A possible suspension would send a catastrophic message for the decarbonisation of transport ”, MEP Karima Delli, president of the Transport and Tourism Committee, was moved on Twitter. She made public a letter addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to challenge the additional deadlines imposed for the review of the law.
“There was already only a skin of sorrow from the proposals of the Citizens’ Convention in the climate law. But it is still too much for the aviation sector which operates in Brussels ”, had earlier commented the ecologist Delphine Batho.
Concretely, the connections falling within the perimeter of the law are Marseille-Lyon, Paris-Orly-Nantes, Orly-Lyon and Orly-Bordeaux. Four lines, therefore, out of the hundreds of existing internal air connections. The text nevertheless provides for exceptions for correspondence. The law especially ratified the existing one, since the government had forced Air France to give up the routes concerned, in return for financial support in May 2020. It prohibited competitors from rushing into the breach.
During parliamentary debates, the UAF and the Scara had already contested the abolition of these lines, in particular Orly-Bordeaux which, before the health crisis, transported more than 560,000 travelers per year.
The “climate law” is however considered not very ambitious by the associations of defense of the environment. The incriminated measure is one of the rare ideas of the Citizen’s Convention to have survived. But it had been diminished by the executive. The 150 wanted to abolish domestic flights in case of alternatives of less than four hours by train, instead of two and a half hours.