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Intermodal transport: Council adopts negotiating positions to reinforce passenger rights in the EU

To reinforce the application of passenger rights across the EU, today the Council adopted its negotiating position (general approach) on two Commission proposals, which form part of the so-called ‘passenger mobility’ legislative package:

• a draft regulation amending five different sectoral regulations regarding the enforcement of passenger rights in the EU, and
• a draft regulation on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys

The legislative package aims to address the gaps in the current passenger rights regulatory framework. The Council’s positions highlight the importance of protecting the rights of passengers, while limiting as much as possible the administrative burden on the operators and national enforcement bodies. More specifically:

Regulation on enforcement of passenger rights

The draft regulation aims to strike a balance between the protection of passengers and the obligation of carriers and infrastructure managers, as well as to address the shortcomings in the implementation and enforcement of passenger rights through:

• ensuring effective and efficient enforcement across all member states and in all modes of transport, through more effective tools for the monitoring of operators’ compliance with passenger rights
• ensuring a more effective complaint handling for passengers irrespective of the transport mode
• in case of airline tickets booked via an intermediary, regulating the right to reimbursement of the full cost of a ticket when the flight is not carried out as planned

The draft regulation does not establish any new passenger rights as such.

The Council’s position maintains the general thrust of the Commission proposal. However, several changes have been introduced aiming to clarify the provisions and reduce the administrative burden. The Council’s position also sought to maintain coherence between this proposal and the proposal on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys. The main changes to the original Commission proposal can be summarised as follows:

1. A definition of a ‘recognised assistance dog’ has been added to clarify this concept, which has not been defined in the EU legislation so far. This clarification should increase legal certainty for the passengers, notably those most vulnerable – persons with disabilities and with reduced mobility.
2. The Council’s position clarifies and simplifies the procedure for submission of reimbursement and compensation. The language regime for the submission of the relevant forms was simplified to reduce administrative burden on the carriers and intermediaries on one hand, and to facilitate the procedure for the passengers, on the other.
3. To avoid excessive administrative burden for national enforcement bodies and preserve their independence, provisions related to the monitoring of compliance and on cooperation between member states and the Commission have been deleted.
4. Regarding air passenger rights, the reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket booked through an intermediary has been clarified to better reflect the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) case law, notably as regards the intermediation fees.

Regulation on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys

The draft regulation aims to complement the already existing rules of the sectoral EU legislation on passenger rights by ensuring that passengers enjoy a similar level of protection where they switch between the different transport modes during a journey. It sets up a legal framework to determine the respective obligations and liabilities of the different travel service providers involved in a multimodal journey. The draft regulation provides for:

• the prohibition of discrimination between passengers regarding transport conditions and the provision of tickets
• the obligation to provide minimum and accurate information to passengers in an accessible format and in a timely manner
• the protection of passengers’ rights in the event of disruption, particularly in the context of a missed connection between different transport modes during a multimodal journey
• non-discrimination against, and assistance for, persons with disabilities and persons with reduced mobility

The Council’s position maintains the general thrust of the Commission proposal. However, several changes have been introduced and can be summarised as follows:

1. The scope of the draft regulation has been redefined to improve the clarity of the text, so that carriers and intermediaries can better identify their obligations, and passengers their rights.
2. Given that the proposal introduces significant obligations on the operators involved in multimodal journeys performed under a single multimodal ticket, this concept has been clarified to specify that the carriers operating successive transport services that form the multimodal journey should conclude between them an agreement to offer those transport services as part of such a multimodal journey.
3. The relationship with other EU legal acts, including sectoral EU legislation on passenger rights, has been clarified.
4. The reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket booked through an intermediary has been clarified to better reflect the ECJ case law, notably as regards the intermediation fees.
5. The text clarifies and simplifies the procedure for submission of reimbursement and compensation requests, including their linguistic regime.
6. To safeguard high quality of services for persons with disabilities or persons with reduced mobility, an obligation has been introduced for carriers and terminal managers to establish quality standards regarding information and access requirements, and to monitor their performance.

Next steps

Following today’s adoption of the Council’s negotiating mandates (general approaches), the incoming presidency is enabled to enter talks with the European Parliament (‘trilogues’) with a view to possible first reading agreements on both files.

Background information

The EU passenger rights regulatory framework consists of five regulations dealing with four transport modes – two regulations for air, one for waterborne, one for bus and coach, and one for rail transport. On 29 November 2023, the Commission presented a package consisting of two regulations: (i) amending existing regulations as regards enforcement of passenger rights in the EU, and (ii) on passenger rights in the context of multimodal journeys. They aim to address the shortcomings of the current framework in terms of implementation and enforcement of passenger rights, and to fill in the regulatory gaps in terms of respective obligations and liabilities of the different travel service providers involved in multimodal journeys, respectively.