Government supports the objectives of the Commission’s proposal on passenger rights

On 1 February 2024, the Government submitted to Parliament a Union communication on the European Commission's proposal on the implementation of passenger rights in the European Union. The Government largely supports the Commission's proposal.

The EU passenger rights regulations have been drawn up to protect passengers before, during and after their journey. Passenger rights apply to air, rail, maritime and inland waterway transport, and bus and coach transport. The rights cover factors such as passenger access to information before and at different stages of the journey and the right to compensation in certain circumstances.

The Commission's proposal would revise the passenger rights regulations to improve the enforcement of regulations and streamline the processing of appeals. 

The Commission's proposal also seeks to clarify the rules on ticket price refunds for air passengers who have booked their flight through an intermediary. If the flight does not take place as planned, in certain circumstances passengers would be entitled to full compensation.

The Commission also published a number of other proposals mainly aimed at harmonising passenger rights regulations for different modes of transport.

The Government welcomes the objectives of the Commission's proposal and generally supports strengthening and harmonising the implementation of passenger rights.

However, the balance between the obligations of transport and other operators and the rights of passengers must be ensured. The Government stresses that for enforcement to be effective, regulations must be of high quality and easy to understand.

Next steps

The Union communication will be submitted to Parliament for consideration. The proposal will be discussed by a Council of the European Union working group, in which Finland actively participates.

Inquiries:

Sini Wirén, Director-General, sini.wiren(at)gov.fi, tel. +358 295 342 532