Civil Aviation Bill

That is the area where the debate is taking place—how we resolve the differences between states. I may be doing the French an injustice in paraphrasing their position, but as I understand it, they believe that the list adopted should be a superset of all the lists of all the member states, so that no airline that is banned in one country can fly in another. However, there is some disagreement in Council about whether that is the correct approach. Other member states take the position that if a member state wishes to include on its list an airline that is not included on the lists of other member states, it should be for that state to do so in respect of its own nation, and for it to try and convince the other member states that we should all upgrade our lists to its standard. The position of the UK Government is clear. We expect to see a standard that meets the UK criteria—in other words, we reserve the right to see that any airline that we want banned is banned from the UK. But how we ultimately resolve the issue and get agreement across all the partners is a matter for continuing discussion in Council. I expect to see further progress by the next Transport Council, which is in early December. With that, I hope I have convinced hon. Gentlemen that we are working urgently to resolve the matter not only through the actions that we have already taken in the UK, but among the partners of the EU, where it is being given the appropriate level of priority.