EU 261: German Supreme Court rules on liability for delay of re-routing flight

The German Supreme Court (BGH) ruled that an operating carrier could be liable, under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, for cancelling its initial flight, if the re-routing flight offered is delayed, with the result that the passengers reach delayed their final destination, even if the re-routing flight is operated by another carrier.

German court finds airline price-adjustment clause unfair

In a recent judgment, the Court of first instance of Berlin (LG Berlin) fined Air Berlin for using an unfair price-adjustment clause in its contracts, in legal proceedings initiated by the Federal German Consumer Protection Association (VZBV). The judgment is appealable.

UAS: Greek law enters into force

On 1.1.2017 entered into force the Greek law on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), which is the Decision of the Director of the Greek Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) No Δ/ΥΠΑ/21860/1422. The Decision applies to all UAS that fly within Greek airspace or within international airspace, but inside the Flight Information Region (FIR) / Upper Information Region (UIR) of Greece. 

Implementing legislative measures of the Decision are pending, which means that details on the application of its provisions are not yet known.  Furthermore, many provisions of the Decision are based on the Prototype Commission Regulation on Unmanned AircraftOperations published by EASA on 22 August 2016 for consultation purposes. This is an additional hurdle to the implementation of the Decision, since this EASA Prototype Regulation has not entered into force and contains rules on areas that belong to the competence of the EU, such as product safety rules.

Air carrier liability: Greek CA rules against compensability of pure mental injury under Montreal Convention

The Court of Appeals (CA) of Athens, Greece, in its decision No 4326/2015, ruled that a passenger who suffered mental distress, but no bodily injury, does not have a right to compensation under Art. 17 of the 1999 Montreal Convention on air carrier liability (MC).

EASA issues regulatory proposals in response to the Germanwings accident

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has published a set of regulatory proposals, to prevent accidents like the Germanwings flight 4U9525, in which the co-pilot, who had a history of mental issues, took advantage of the temporary absence of the pilot-in-command and committed suicide by crashing the aircraft. The proposals concern medical requirements for pilots and the "2-persons-in-the-cockpit" recommendation. Further recommendations are about to follow by the end of the year.

The Hague Manifesto on Space Policy

The Hague Manifesto on Space Policy presents the main findings on space policy of the 2016 Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the EU. These findings codify the results of the Competitiveness Council on Space Meeting of 26 May 2016, the EU-ESA Informal Space Ministerial Meeting of 30 May 2016 and the main messages of the opening and policy days of the European Space Solutions Conference that took place on the 30th and 31st of May 2016. The main purpose of this Manifesto is to assist in the drafting of the forthcoming Space Strategy for Europe.

ESA extends its family with Cyprus and Slovenia

On the 6th of July 2016, Cyprus became the 11th country to sign the European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, strengthening its relations with ESA. One day before, on the 5^th of July, Slovenia signed an Association Agreement with ESA.