The Commission decided to open a formal investigation into the public service obligations imposed by Italy on 10 December 2004…
The Commission decided to open a formal investigation into the public service obligations imposed by Italy on 10 December 2004 on 18 air routes between three Sardinian airports and the main airports on the Italian mainland. The Commission has doubts as to their conformity with the internal aviation market rules.
The completion of the internal aviation market in the 1990s gave all European airlines unconditional access to intra-Community and domestic routes. This opening up of the market was accompanied by safeguard measures. The most important of these concerned public service obligations,[1] which allow governments to maintain services considered essential for the harmonious development of their territory. Without such obligations such services might be discontinued because they are not in the air carriers` commercial interest.
The mechanism is two-phase. First, for a given route, the Member State publishes the public service obligation which will be imposed on the carrier in terms of capacity, frequency of flights and fares. Next, if no carrier applies to operate the route, the Member State may restrict access to that route to only one carrier and decide to grant it financial compensation for operating the route in accordance with the obligation.
The Commission`s preliminary examination of the obligations published by Italy reveals elements which raise serious doubts as to their conformity with European legislation.
The Commission therefore wishes to examine the case in more detail. It will assess the extent to which the routes are vital to the economic development of the regions of Sardinia concerned and look at the possibility of alternative routes. In addition, it will examine the conformity of the requirement that interested carriers operate all eighteen routes as a single package and the requirement that reduced fares must be applied to passengers solely because of their place of birth (Sardinia) or because they have family links with Sardinia.
The investigation will determine whether the principles of the internal market have been observed by Italy and whether the obligations can actually be imposed.
Annex
The following routes are concerned:
- Alghero/Rome and Rome/Alghero
- Alghero/Milan and Milan /Alghero
- Alghero/Bologna and Bologna/Alghero
- Alghero/Turin and Turin/Alghero
- Alghero/Pisa and Pisa/Alghero
- Cagliari/Rome and Rome/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Milan and Milan/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Bologna and Bologna/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Turin and Turin/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Pisa and Pisa/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Verona and Verona/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Naples and Naples/Cagliari
- Cagliari/Palermo and Palermo/Cagliari
- Olbia/Rome and Rome/Olbia
- Olbia/Milan and Milan/Olbia
- Olbia/Bologna and Bologna/Olbia
- Olbia/Turin and Turin/Olbia
- Olbia/Verona and Verona/Olbia
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