Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

52 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE I. INTRODUCTION. THE PROTECTION OF TOURISTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Tourism has experienced steady growth and deep diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. This dynamic has made this sector a real engine for the development of many countries and, incidentally, it encourages increased diversification and competition among destinations. Currently, the business volume of tourism activities worldwide equals or even exceeds that of oil exports, food products or automobiles. Undoubtedly, tourism has become one of the major players in international trade and, additionally, it generates economic impacts on other related sectors such as construction, agriculture and telecommunications. When the founding treaties of the European Communities (ECSC in 1951, EEC and EURATON in 1957) were drafted, tourism was not a relevant activity in the signatory countries – except Italy and France – and that is why it was not included among Community policies. The drafters of the Treaties were not able to foresee the boom tourism would have a few years later. With the accession of Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1986), the interest in this phenomenon was significantly increased, but not given priority importance. The only mention is found in Annex III to the Treaty, based on the free movement of capital, where tourism was ranked among the ‘invisible transactions’. In Article 106.3 of the Treaty of Rome is envisaged the liberalization of its payment. It was only once the Maastricht Treaty was approved, on February 7 1992, that there was a reference on tourism. In Article 3, letter ‘t’, it recognizes that “ for the purposes set out in Article 2, the activities of the Community shall include, as provided in this Treaty and, in accordance with the timetable set out therein: measures in the spheres of energy, civil protection and tourism ”. However, this inclusion should not be misleading, since the introduction of tourism in the EU primary law did not mean that it had been granted its own legal base; it was only a statement of willingness as it recognized that it was an important subject to achieve the objectives set out in Article 2 of the Treaty. When the Economic and Social Committee adopted (95 / C 301/15) the Green Paper it became clear that the lack of legal basis in the EU Treaty was a huge damper to the Community policy in terms of tourism, and proposed to add a new title to the Treaty. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the importance of tourism and specifically the competence to support, coordinate and supplement the