Environmental impact of aviation — slot allocation

18.4.2018

Question for written answer P-002187-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Bas Eickhout (Verts/ALE)

Negotiations at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will not lead to an agreement that brings the aviation sector anywhere close to the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement[1].

EU Member States should therefore look into additional measures to reduce the increasingly harmful environmental impact of aviation. Such measures could include, among other things, a restriction/reduction in the total number of slots allocated at airports, or giving preference in the allocation of airport slots to the aircraft that perform best environmentally.

If Member States would like to reduce the total number of slots allocated in a certain airport, what legal routes could it pursue in order to do so?

What possibilities (through Council Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 or otherwise) do Member States have to allocate slots on the basis of the environmental performance of planes (such as fuel efficiency, CO₂, air or noise pollution)?

Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 on the allocation of slots in airports is one of the regulations that has not yet been reviewed in the light of the Paris Agreement. Is the Commission (irrespective of the file currently being blocked in the Council) planning a review of the regulation taking into account the Paris Agreement and, if so, when? If not, why not?

• [1] https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Post-Assembly-Policy-Brief-Web.pdf