Welcome to the April edition of the GBTA Europe Advocacy Newsletter designed to keep you up to date with what’s happening in relation to business travel in Brussels, and how GBTA is advocating on your behalf.

Click here for the EU jargon buster.

Quick Links

•  Summary of Key Take-Aways
•  Next Steps
•  Other Updates

GBTA Action in the EU

Feature of the month – GBTA Advocacy Outreach

On 27-29 March 2023, a delegation of GBTA staff and European members gathered in Brussels to advocate for the unique priorities of the business travel sector. They held multiple meetings with policymakers, trade associations, and subject matter experts over the course of three days. Below is a comprehensive list of the stakeholders GBTA met with in Brussels:

Policymakers

• The Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) – Unit: Single European Rail Area (C.3) and the DG MOVE Unit: Sustainable and Intelligent Transport (B.4)
• The Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship And SMEs (DG GROW) – Unit: Tourism, Textiles (G.1)
• Member of the European Parliament - Jan-Christophe Oetjen (Renew, Germany)
• Spanish Permanent Representation to the EU
• United States Mission to the EU

Trade Associations and other EU organizations

• Community Of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER)
• ALLRAIL - The Future of Passenger Railways
• eu travel tech: European Travel Tech Organization
• Airports Council International (ACI) Europe
• e-fuel alliance
• FuelsEurope
• European Banking Federation

Industry

• Boeing EU Office
• VISA EU Office

Events attended

• Airlines for Europe (A4E) Aviation Summit

Hear from Ben Park – Chair, GBTA Europe Advisory Board, as he shares his three take-aways following the GBTA Advocacy Round in Brussels meeting government officials, stakeholders, and policy makers.

Summary of Key Takeaways

• Digital Multimodality & Rail: Discussions revealed varying stakeholder opinions, stressing the need for balanced EU policy on multimodal digital services. GBTA pushed the relevant Commission Directorate Generals drafting these laws for comprehensive data access, enabling eco-friendly, cost-effective business travel choices.
• Sustainable Aviation: Overcoming SAF production challenges and high costs requires creative policy solutions, something that GBTA often repeated. GBTA met with stakeholders that push for short-term emissions reductions through engine efficiency, air traffic optimisation, and eco-labels, while exploring new technologies.
• Payment Services: The upcoming review of the Payment Services Directive in the EU will address concerns like Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) delay and Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) transactions. GBTA advocated for a directive that prioritizes business traveler needs and ensures a harmonised, seamless cross-border payment experience. 

Next Steps

Following GBTA’s outreach in Brussels, numerous opportunities and next steps have emerged to bolster the business traveller's voice within EU policymakers and stakeholders. GBTA will continue to push for collaboration and engagement:

• GBTA will maintain contact with key policymakers, such as MEP Oetjen in aviation matters, and the Spanish Permanent Representation, which will define priority matters in the EU for the second half of 2023 as they assume the EU Presidency of the Council.
• On the Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS), GBTA will continue advocating for equal treatment across transport operators, leveraging stakeholder collaboration with relevant rail stakeholders such as CER and ALLRAIL to better understand the challenges in the sector.
• On payment services, GBTA is eager to work closely with VISA and other service providers on defining key payment terms and monitoring the release of PSD3, ensuring our industry remains well-represented.

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

Other Key Points

1. Transport & sustainability - Developments on the legislations relevant to achieving the EU's climate targets

RefuelEU Aviation
The next interinstitutional negotiation on RefuelEU Aviation, the initiative aimed at significantly pushing for the uptake of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) is expected to take place on 25 April 2023. This is said to be the final negotiation among the EU institutions to determine the final details of the initiate.

Renewable Energy Directive
On 30 March 2023, the EU institutions reached a political agreement in the final interinstitutional negotiation on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). They agreed to increase the share of renewable energy to 42.5% by 2030 with an option to reach 45%.

The negotiators also agreed on sub-targets for specific sectors like transport, industry, buildings, and district heating and cooling, to speed up the integration of renewables in slower sectors. In transport, member states can choose a binding target of 14.5% greenhouse gas reduction or a binding share of 29% renewables by 2030. View more intel on the agreement here.

Green Claims Initiative
On 22 March 2023, the European Commission unveiled its proposal for a Green Claims Directive, aimed at tackling greenwashing and improving consumer trust in environmental claims. This legislation is set to establish a clear framework for environmental claims and labels, promote genuine efforts in developing environmentally friendly products and services, and empower consumers with trustworthy information. The proposed directive focuses on voluntary "green claims" made by businesses and would apply to business-to-consumer commercial practices, as defined in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.  

2. Other updates

Council paving the way for digitalised Schengen visas
EU member states' ambassadors have agreed to a proposal to digitalise the visa procedure, allowing for online applications and replacing the current visa sticker with a digital visa. The goal is to improve the efficiency of the process and enhance security in the Schengen area. The new rules will create a visa application platform, and in-person appearances will only be required for certain cases. The digital visa will be issued in a secure 2D barcode format, reducing the risks related to counterfeit and stolen visa stickers. Now the file will go into interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament to finalise the details on this file. More information can be found here.

No flight cap at Schiphol after all
A Dutch court has overturned a government order that Schiphol must begin capping yearly flights at 460,000 as announced earlier this year, to address environmental problems, and prevent noise pollution. The court sided with KLM and International Air Transport Association (IATA), who launched the action against the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport flight cap. View more information here.

Increase or no increase in private jet flights?
According to recent research commissioned by Greenpeace Central, the number of private jet flights in Europe increased by 64 percent last year, with CO2 emissions from such flights more than doubling. Greenpeace has urged the EU and national governments to ban private jets.

However, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has criticized Greenpeace for spreading "misleading data" about business aviation in its recent report that private flights in the EU increased by 64% in 2022. The EBAA argues that the report was distorted and failed to take into account pre-COVID data. The EBAA pointed to a Eurocontrol report showing only a 7% increase in business aviation traffic compared to 2019. The EBAA claims the report compared 2022 business flights to a low point during COVID, creating a false image of growth.