AIR TRAFFIC CASE STUDY: Getting tourism going again, and by extension its adjacent industries, is a priority for many governments in Europe. But saving the planet is a top concern for everyone or so they say. European airlines and trade unions, in a rare joint initiative, are warning against being thrown under the bus when they’re just starting to recover from months of effectively being grounded: They fear the Commission’s plans for the contribution of the aviation sector to climate goals will have the unintended side-effect of boosting non-EU airlines.
Airlines fear market distortion: Planned proposals in next week’s “Fit for 55” package risk significantly increasing “the competitive advantage of non-EU airlines and non-EU hub airports compared to their EU counterparts,” says a joint letter, obtained by Playbook, by an association of major European airlines including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and SAS as well as the European Transport Workers’ Federation. �
JOBS JOBS JOBS (IN PARLIAMENT): The European Parliament wants to further increase its number of staff by 322 people next year, according to a “non paper,” seen by POLITICO, that was put on the table for negotiations on the budget for 2022. Last month, the Commission presented a draft that includes Parliament’s forecast of the staff it needs, and “the Commission has not modified this proposal,” the document says. And so, Parliament “has foreseen 142 additional establishment plan posts and 180 additional external staff” for next year.
Now that’s asking a lot. The document also includes a graph showing the Parliament is the only EU institution that has increased its staff during the past 10 years, while the Commission and Council have both been below the 2012 headcount for several years. And while the paper mentions a “gentlemen’s agreement” reached in the 1970s that would tie the hands of EU member countries as “the Council undertakes to make no amendment