Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

54 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE Within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union (First half of 2010), an informal ministerial meeting (14 April 2010) was held, in Madrid, under the motto “Towards a socially responsible tourism model”. This lead to the presentation of the Declaration of Madrid, which aimed to achieve a new scope of action between the different countries of the Union, developing areas such as the effective protection of the consumer of tourism products, by means of the harmonisation of protection rules, because of the multitude of languages, regulations and legal systems existing nowadays. a) Protection of travellers and tourists. The policy of consumer protection is enshrined in Article 169 TFEU (former Article 153 TEC), although the design of this policy dates back to the seventies. While the tourist’s consumer protection had its greatest exponent in Council Directive 90/314/EEC, of 13 June 1990, on package travel, package holidays and package tours , in EEC Regulation No. 295/91 of the Council, of 4 February 1991, establishing common rules for a denied-boarding compensation system in scheduled air transport , and in Directive 94/47/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 26 October 1994, on the protection of purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts relating to the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a timeshare basis , these three provisions were repealed by the current provisions in force: Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 25 November 2015, on package travel and linked travel arrangements , which is the subject of detailed analysis in this collective work, Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004, of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 February 2014, establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights , and Directive 2008/122/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 14 January 2009, on the protection of consumers in respect of certain aspects of timeshare, long-term holiday product, resale and exchange contracts , respectively. b) Passenger rights in the means of transport. The EU has developed a set of passenger rights in all means of transport (air, rail, water, bus and coach), aiming to guarantee the same level of protection for the passengers (compensation and assistance to the passengers in the event of accidents, cancellations or delays), no matter which transportation they decide to use, nor their nationality. The objective of transport policies is to create a Single European Transport Area, with policies that make it competitive and sustainable. TheTrans-European networks in the transport, telecommunications and energy sectors contribute to