ABTA celebrates lobbying successes at Brussels
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ABTA has gained two lobbying victories for the travel trade at the European Commission in Brussels. In light of its successes, the European Parliament has rejected proposals to introduce a ‘cooling off’ period that would have allowed customers to cancel a holiday with no fee for up to 14 days. The association also lobbied against plans for a new EU-wide air tax but the EC’s budget has not mentioned the levy in its 2014-2020 budget. Luke Pollard, head of public affairs at ABTA said he was delighted with the news. “A cooling off period would have forced significant changes to current business models and almost certainly resulted in higher prices for consumers and additional costs for holiday companies,” he explained. However, there is still some support for the concept and there is a danger that it may return in the terms of a revised Package Travel Directive. ABTA will continue with our industry partners to lobby in Brussels to make sure that we successfully make the case against this damaging and ill-thought out proposal.” The association will now turn its EC lobbying efforts to the revised Package Travel Directive on airline insolvency, which is due to be published in December or early 2012.
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