ATA says EU’s ETS application to US airlines is illegal

The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) has asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to dismiss the European Union application of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and declare it illegal.

Acting on behalf of its members, the ATA said that aviation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should be regulated on a global sectoral basis, and that unilateral action by any country or group of countries violates international law. The ATA challenges EU ETS because it is a unilateral measure, which has not been agreed by countries outside the EU, yet nevertheless applies EU law to third country carriers in third country airspace. In applying the trading scheme to non-EU airlines, the EU is violating customary international law and several treaty provisions in the Convention on International Civil Aviation (commonly referred to as the "Chicago Convention"), which dictates that countries have sovereignty over the airlines in their own airspace. As proposed, the EU ETS provisions would regulate an entire flight from across the US to the EU, even though the flight would be in EU airspace for only a fraction of the journey.

The ATA also outlined how the levies imposed by the scheme violate provisions of the Chicago Convention and US-EU bilateral air services agreement and the Kyoto Protocol, which confirms that International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has the authority to establish greenhouse gas policy for international aviation.

IATA has also slammed the EU ETS, saying that a tunnel-vision focus on a unilateral, punitive and illegal ETS may help some government budgets, it will do little – if anything – to improve environmental performance.

The high court is expected to issue a ruling by end-2011 or early-2012.

Quelle: eyefortransport
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