The European Commission has presented an "urgent action plan" to mitigate the impact of Brexit in case of non-agreement, or ‘hard Brexit,’ which is looking increasingly probable.
Brussels wants to ensure the continuation of ‘certain’ air services between the UK and European Union countries for a period of one year.
A communiqué today from the EU executive includes 14 measures for the sectors most likely to suffer from Brexit, including financial services, customs and climate change agreements.
With regard to air transport, the European Commission puts forward two proposals for a regulations aimed at avoiding, "the complete disruption of air traffic between the EU and the United Kingdom in the event of lack of agreement," the first of which aims to ensure, for one year, the provision of certain air services, while the second provides for the temporary extension (for nine months) of the validity of some air security licenses.
The 14 proposals are limited to specific areas where, "the vital interests of the EU are absolutely necessary" and where, "the preparatory measures themselves are not sufficient," i.e where there had been no consensus after two years of talks.
The Commission says the measures need to be agreed asap as they are "essential and urgent" and certainly need to be in place for 30 March 2019, in case the UK has a disorderly exit.
"In principle, these measures will be of a temporary nature, have a limited scope and will be adopted unilaterally by the EU," reads today’s statement, indicating that in the coming weeks the Commission will continue to develop its emergency action plan, fearing the worst as effective British politics reaches an all time low.
