Canada’s largest airlines disappointed with court ruling

The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) has expressed its disappointment with a recent ruling of the European Union Court of Justice (EUCJ) that dismissed a challenge, based on numerous well-established principles of international law, to the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) and renewed its call on the EU to suspend application of its ETS to aviation in favour of a global solution agreed upon by all affected parties. “While we respect the Court’s ruling and authority, the NACC is nevertheless disappointed that the clear extra-territorial scope and application of the EU ETS was not found to be in violation of fundamental principles of international customary and treaty law, as had been comprehensively argued,”said NACC president George Petsikas. “Although this is probably one of the last judicial recourses available under EU law, this ruling by no means settles this matter.”In 2010, the NACC and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) intervened in support of a lawsuit brought by the US Air Transport Association (ATA) against the ETS. The main thrust of this challenge was based on the airline industry’s near-unanimous view that the extra-territorial scope and application of the EU ETS violates fundamental principles of international customary and treaty law, and in particular numerous provisions of the Chicago Convention, the EU-US Open Skies Agreement, the Canada-EU Air Transport Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol, among others. (http://www.airlinecouncil.ca)