Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

HUNGARY | ANDRAS SALAMON 849 The legislator failed to amend the regulation of Government Decree 213/1996 of 23 December relating to the financial security despite the judgements passed by ECJ and the Hungarian courts. III. REGULATION OF INSOLVENCY PROTECTION OF CHAPTER V OF DIRECTIVE (EU) 2015/2302 IN GOVERNMENT DECREE 213/1996 OF 23 DECEMBER AFTER 01 JULY 2018 22) The provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 regarding insolvency protection (Chapter V) were transposed into the Hungarian legal order by Government Decrees 473/2017 of 28 December and 79/2018 of 20 April as a result of the amendment to Government Decree 213/1996 of 23 December. 23) The amending government decrees amended Sections 8(3), (9) and (12) regarding financial security of Government Decree 213/1996 of 23 December, and inserted two new Sections under number Section 9/A and Section 10/A after Section 9 and Section 10 respectively, furthermore Section 10(1)a) was repealed. 24) The new comprehensive term: insolvency protection, used in the title of Chapter V of the Directive was not taken over by the amendment. 25) The term of financial security still remained in force, and the legislator added the term insurance for the traveller as the beneficiary to this. The amendment changed the former one-pillar system of insolvency protection into a system of two pillars, and the tour operator’s insolvency protection, which consisted only of the property security earlier, was replaced by a construction of two pillars. 26) The first pillar is the financial security, which must be available to all tour operators and traders facilitating linked travel arrangements and which is a fundamental condition of the commencement and continuation of the activities of tour operators and traders facilitating linked travel arrangements. The financial security is still not a condition of the commencement and continuation of tour operators’ activities.