Review of the passengers' rights framework

Background

The general objective of the initiative is to consolidate and simplify the passenger rights regulatory framework as well as to enhance its crisis resilience, addressing lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. This would lead to a more homogeneous system of rights for passengers across all transport modes, while taking into account the specificities of each of them, also in times of crises.

In line with the findings of the evaluation of three Regulations on air passenger rights for passengers with reduced mobility, waterborne and bus & coach passenger rights, the first specific objective is to ensure a better application and enforcement of the passenger rights rules for these three modes.

The second specific objective is to address aspects not currently covered for all modes of transport (‘horizontal issues’). These include e.g. the implementation of the rules when intermediaries are involved or whether there is an adequate protection of passengers against the risk of mass disruption and/or operator insolvency, regarding the timely reimbursement of tickets and, if needed, repatriation.

Key points

The EESC:

• supports the new regulation proposed by the Commission, which aims to improve passenger rights and ensure travellers receive better information. All parts of this new regulation (package travel, passenger rights and multimodal journeys) should be considered complementary to each other;
• is concerned about citizens' general lack of awareness when it comes to their rights and about problems they encounter trying to exercise these rights, and therefore believes information to be the most useful and effective tool available to travellers so that they know their rights and can exercise them if they are breached;
• recommends that the Commission ensure that tourism service providers provide extensive, quality information directly to travellers, even if this information is also available elsewhere, for example online.

Additional information

Section: Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN)

Opinion number: TEN/825

Opinion type: Mandatory

Referral: COM(2023) 752 final 2023/0436 COD COM(2023) 752 final 2023/0436 COD COM(2023) 753 final 2023/0437 COD COM(2023) 753 final 2023/0437 COD

Rapporteur: Ileana Izverniceanu de la Iglesia (Group III - Spain)

Date of adoption by section: 28 February 2024

Result of the vote: 69 in favour, 1 against, 3 abstentions

Date of adoption in plenary: 20-21 March 2024

Result of the vote: 212 in favour, 1 against, 2 abstentions

Contact

Marco Pezzani

Press Officer

Tel.: +32 2 546 9793 | Mob: +32 470 881 903

E-mail: marco.pezzani@eesc.europa.eu

António Ribeiro Pereira

Administrator

Tel.: +32 546 9363

E-mail: antonio.ribeiropereira@eesc.europa.eu