mr president i welcome the opportunity that this oral question gives us to revisit the problems experienced by travellers and the wider aviation industry during last year's icelandic volcano crisis
what became clear last year was that member states and the eu as a whole had no plan for such an eventuality the data used was incomplete the meteorologists could not or indeed would not help and everybody perfected the art of blaming someone else and adopted a policy of risk aversion rather than one of risk management
to be frank mr president member states bottled it last year
but mr president that was then
what about the future
do we have a comprehensive plan to cover the next volcanic eruption
should this happen will member states coordinate at eu level in future
crucially will they involve the aviation industry and particularly airlines before they issue their advice
we have to avoid the mistakes made last year which gave us the nonsense of one country closing its airspace whilst a neighbouring country kept theirs open leading to chaos confusion and huge economic consequences
finally mr president the icelandic volcano highlighted one major thing it has strengthened the argument for a single european sky better than any politician could have done
our role now is to develop and deliver this as a matter of urgency even though as usual the member states are back to their old habits of dragging their feet on this much-needed project
