Looking back over the past 6 years gives an interesting point of view on how we lobbied and on the lessons learnt for the future. Everything started in 2012 when UPS announced their intention to takeover the TNT group.

The potential very negative consequences for TNT Airways were obvious and we started to alert the Belgian politicians by sending letters to the Minister of Transport and the Prime Minister. At the same time, we performed an in-depth analysis of the air transport agreement between the EU and the USA, the so-called Open Skies agreements. With the help of TNT pilots, we sent pens between their hotels on the European network and looked at the live tracking. We were able to demonstrate that UPS and FedEx organise all-cargo express services throughout Europe, breaching the Open Skies agreements that restrict their operations in Europe to services linked to the USA.

With a first version of the file, we organised a press conference and we met the Chief of staff of the Minister of Transport, and later on the Chief of staff of the Prime Minister. We met also a Belgian MEP (Member of the European Parliament) who sent an official question to the European Commission (EC). All of this helped us to get a first meeting in the EC’s office. The conclusions of this first meeting were totally unexpected and very disappointing. Facing the overwhelming evidence, and after a ridiculous first attempt to justify the current situation, the EC came with a new concept of “virtual” freedoms. In a nutshell, for the EC, every package transiting by a European airport having a regular flight to the USA is now “virtually” linked to a service to and from the USA. In front of our incredulity, the EC explained – seriously – that we could do the same in the USA with a virtual hub in Canada. Of course, this was strongly denied by the US authorities a few weeks later.

Convinced by our arguments, the French CAA sent an official letter to the EC to support our position. The EC answered 15 months later (!), just before the European elections, and simply confirmed its interpretation on the virtual freedoms. Luckily, in the meantime, the EC cancelled the takeover of TNT for a competitive issue. This put our lobbying in a kind of idle mode. During the next 3 years, we just kept the file alive by challenging every year the EC during the EU-US Joint Committee on Open Skies.

The announcement of the takeover of TNT by FedEx in April 2015 launched a new phase in our lobbying. We updated our documents with new tracking on the FedEx European network. We organised a new press conference, and we met again some people from the Minister of Transport and from the Prime Minister office. We hired for a few months a professional lobbyist who helped us meet the EC in July 2017, but this time at a much higher level. We exposed again our arguments, our scepticism regarding the legality of the virtual freedoms, and we stressed the lack of reciprocity which allows UPS and FedEx to attack the European market while at the same time being protected on their home market. The EC did not give any answer but promised to come back with an official answer at the end of the summer, then at the end of the year, then… never came with an answer despite our numerous reminders.

Today, we continue to push the file and we prepare our lobbying for the next Joint Committee. Thanks to the current bad relations with the US part, the file is slowly reaching a higher level on the EC’s agenda. The European cargo industry is now also showing some signs of interests. This is a good news that may restore the balance of power with the Commission.

You might think: 6-year efforts for so little result. Indeed, but let’s not forget that it takes time, courage and perseverance to achieve great results. Even more at European level. And we are now much more efficient in our lobbying. The battle is not over !

Capt. Didier Moraine, ECA Director