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GBTA Europe Advocacy Newsletter – August 2022

  • GBTA published a news article entitled “GBTA Calls on the European Union to Adapt Regulations To Avoid Further Travel Disruption” addressing how the current six-week background checks required for employees working at airports and in the airline sector is causing a bottleneck, and delay to the smooth travel experience required by business travellers.
  • GBTA submitted its response to the European Commission’s call for evidence on the initiative entitled “Payment services – review of EU rules”. GBTA’s response focused on the Strong customer authentication (SCA) provision and the high burden it imposes on business travel, asking the Commission for the sector to be excluded based on its specificities.
  • GBTA has met with representatives of CER, the voice of European Railway, to discuss multimodal transport and decarbonisation of the sector.

For more information on the GBTA actions in the EU, please contact clogan@gbta.org.

KEY POINTS:

1. Covid-19 recovery

EU Tourism stats under COVID-19
Eurostat shared its statistics with regards to how COVID-19 has affected the tourism sector. The statistics showed that compared with July and August 2019, hotels and similar accommodation has been the most affected in the accommodation category (-39%). View more here.

More and more stats, but make them aviation
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Total traffic in May 2022 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) was up 83.1% compared to May 2021, largely driven by the strong recovery in international traffic. View more here.

2. Transport & sustainability – Developments on the legislations relevant to achieving the EU’s climate targets

Alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR)
The current presidency of the Council of the EU held by the Czechs has expressed its wish to move quickly forward with this file and have the interinstitutional negotiations done by December 2023. This will all depend on how quickly the Parliament reaches its position. Stay tuned for more!

RefuelEU Aviation
On July 7, the European Parliament voted to promote greener aviation fuels. It was agreed that suppliers would start delivering sustainable fuel from 2025, reaching 85% of all aviation fuel at EU airports by 2050. It was also agreed that electricity and hydrogen should be part of the new fuel mix and to create a sustainable aviation fund to encourage investment in cleaner technologies. View more here.

Revision of the EU Emission Trading System 
The interinstitutional negotiations between the Parliament, the Commission and the Council on the revision of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) began on 11 July. According to the Czech presidency of the Council, talks will restart on the first week of September, to finalise the legislative text.

Renewable Energy Directive (RED)
MEPs in the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee agreed to back the boost for renewables use and energy savings. The MEPs voted to raise the share of renewables in the EU’s final energy consumption to 45% by 2030 in the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). View more here.

The file will be voted in the European Parliament Plenary in September before moving to the interinstitutional negotiations.

Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)
On June 27, the European Parliament’s TRAN Committee debated the draft opinion on the EPBD. The draft document underlines that a widespread uptake of electric vehicles, in combination with smart charging and bidirectional charging, will help contributing to the energy system integration of buildings and to the balancing of the electricity grid. View the draft opinion for more details.

3. Other updates 

Tourism organisations going green and digital
As part of the Transition Pathway for Tourism, 112 tourism organisations have already committed to the transition of EU tourism. 186 pledges were published on the 28th of June. View more here. 

Action is needed to ensure aviation workers’ and passengers’ rights
The Social & Democrats (S&D) party at the European parliament is calling the EU Commission to take immediate and concrete actions to ensure aviation workers’ and passengers’ rights. View more here.

European Rail Manifesto
Travel and rail industry partner with civil society calling on policy makers to shift to rail. View more here.

Let’s make it rail, but digital
The Vienna declaration was signed by CER and European railway CEOs at the Rail CEO Summit hosted by Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB in Vienna on 9 July 2022 declaring the imminent need to digitalize rail ticketing. View more here.