Welcome to the October 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.

Summary

GBTA Action in the EU

GBTA has had several rounds of engagement representing the voice of the business travel sector to ensure that the upcoming European CountEmissionsEU legislation takes the sector into account:

• GBTA submitted its response to the public consultation to provide guidance on the sector's priorities.
• In addition, GBTA is submitting a detailed position paper on the draft CountEmissionsEU legislation to detail the sector’s concerns, while highlighting the business travel sector's efforts to move forward with its green transition.
• Moreover, GBTA was invited to respond to a priority stakeholder consultation on CountEmissionsEU, aimed at a few stakeholders that the Commission identified as critically important to be heard in drafting this new law.
• GBTA also held a meeting with Szymon Oscislowski* to inform him further of the details that need to be considered in the future legislation, drawing on GBTA's multiple sustainability initiatives.

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

*Deputy Head of Unit in the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission, which is responsible for the preparation of the CountEmissionsEU legislation.

Key Points

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

Alternative fuels infrastructure Regulation (AFIR)
Lawmakers leading the European Parliament’s work on AFIR have reached compromise positions on most of the text. Those compromises must still be put through a vote in the TRAN Committee, likely on October 3, and then a plenary vote. Taking a closer look:

• Car charging: The amendments call for a tighter deadline to build charging points along all of the EU’s transport network.
• Rail: Negotiators have added new requirements for countries to provide infrastructure for electrifying railway lines.
• Aircraft: They’ve also added requirements for ground handling services — as well as airport operators — to ensure an electricity supply to stationary aircraft.

RefuelEU Aviation
As both the European Parliament (view) and the Council (view) have shared their final views on this file (the first session of the interinstitutional negotiations on this file took place on the 8th September). As the negotiators did not reach a consensus, the second trilogue is scheduled for the 13th October.

Slots Regulation
The Commission wants to return this winter to the pre-pandemic “use it or lose it” rules, under which airlines must fly a route 80 percent of the time to retain exclusive rights to it. With traffic recovering, they argue, the current threshold of 64 percent is unnecessarily low.

What do the Council and stakeholders think?
The Czech Council presidency tried to secure a compromise in favor of a 75 percent threshold for the upcoming season but did not gain sufficient support.

Meanwhile, IATA, the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines and Airlines for America have written to Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean asking the Commission to choose a 70 percent threshold for airport takeoff and landing slots this winter, rather than the 80 percent proposed by the EU executive.

EU Emissions Trading System as regards aviation & CORSIA
The interinstitutional negotiation on ETS for aviation and CORSIA started on the 6th September. Under the Commission’s proposal, the ETS would only cover flights between EEA airports while emissions from all other flights would be dealt with by Corsia.

However, NGOs are calling are calling out Corsia as a greenwashing mechanism with minimal environmental impact. View more here.

2. Other updates

ICAO assembly kick-off – more attention on the ETS
Representatives from more than 150 governments descend on Montreal (27 September – 7 October), to launch the two-week assembly of the U.N.’s International Air Transport Organization (ICAO). During the event, which takes place every three years, countries will be talking international aviation policy with the overriding aim of agreeing a “long-term aspirational goal” for the industry on net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The agenda will include hot topics such as the ICAO’s Corsia international offsetting program, which will also be discussed during the assembly and which contrasts with the EU’s tougher Emissions Trading System for offsets. View more on the agenda here.

Increasing pressure on rail
The European Commission’s Green Deal Chief Frans Timmermans has told Dutch radio that he’s given European railways until the end of the year to develop a ticketing system that allows European travelers to book cross-border train trips — or else the Commission will legally enforce it. View more here.

EU Member States demanding a gas price-cap
At least 13 EU energy ministers have formally asked Brussels to propose a measure capping the price of natural gas imported into the bloc.

Who’s in so far? Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Belgium, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia and Romania. If no one else joins, that’s not enough for a qualified majority. View the full story here.

The rationale Europeans are currently paying more than anyone else in the world for natural gas (spot prices are six to ten times those in the U.S., and more than double those in Asia).

The way forward Proponents of the cap idea aren’t calling for a simple price limit, but rather for a “dynamic price cap” — setting a limit that always remains slightly above what other importers pay, so that LNG ships still have an incentive to sail to Europe.