Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

ARTICLE 18 | PATRICIA BENAVIDES VELASCO 421 Similarly, pursuant to the rules of the Directive, a company cannot be requested to contract insurance or a security with a national entity of the Member State in which it wants to establish its activities. Nevertheless, if the regulation of the State of destination requires the fulfilment of any of these obligations, the contract may be undertaken in any Member State. Such contracting must also be recognized by the national authorities of the State of destination. Despite the indicated virtues that have evolved since the Directive entered into force, we have to mention that its implementation has suffered a relevant delay in its enforcement, perhaps because the success of its complete implementation requires a political commitment and a support not only at the European level but also at a national level or, possibly, at even smaller levels such as regional or local ones. In essence, the enforcement of this Directive requires, as a general rule, the possibility of any service provider to legally stablish itself in a Member State in order to carry out its business activity in any other European country. Taking that into consideration, only exceptionally can a company be requested to hold a previous administrative authorization for the exercise of its activity. The need to build these barriers regarding market entry must comply with certain requirements, including the absence of discrimination for reasons of nationality or place of residence. The need of such measure can only be justified by public order, security or public health reasons or to protect the environment. These measures also need to comply with a proportionality criteria, that is, the measures requested by the national regulations cannot go beyond what is strictly needed to achieve the objective they seek. All these regulatory measures aiming to remove the administrative obstacles save costs for the companies that provide or contract services in different European Member States, moreover, they facilitate the establishment of the organisers in States different from those in which they have been stablished or where they have their main office or place of residence. These rules also produce another positive effect, which is the fostering of a transnational provision of services for the companies that are already stablished in a Member State. The benefits of this rule are not limited to businesses. Its implications for consumers are unquestionable. With the full enforcement of the Directive, we will achieve a relevant improvement of the levels of quality of the services the consumers receive, and so will the quantity of the offered services increase and, as a consequence of a broader offer, a price reduction will come to pass.