Air transport: slots at Community airports and competition (amend. Regulation (EEC) No 95/93)

The Council adopted a general approach, pending the European Parliament's opinion in first reading, on a draft Regulation aimed at relaxing temporarily the rules on the allocation of slots at Community airports so as to enable airlines to deal with a drop in demand created by the war in Iraq and the SARS virus. Once the Parliament's opinion has been received, the Council should be able to rapidly reach a broad agreement on this matter at a forthcoming meeting. The Spanish delegation expressed its intention to vote against the Council's agreement at the moment of adoption and the Danish and Swedish delegations expressed their intention to abstain. The draft Regulation is one of the measures announced by the Commission at the Council's session on 27 and 28 March. However, the text approved by the Council, dealing solely with the temporary suspension of the "use it or leave it" principle, has been dealt with separately from a more general proposal on the use of slots which is still under examination within the Council.�