previously advocated for the change<\/a>, welcomed the move as a \u201cbalanced and pragmatic approach\u201d,\u00a0and highlighted the importance of distinguishing business travel from leisure travel.<\/p>\n“Applying package liability rules to business travel arrangements would have created unnecessary burdens for agencies, SMEs and the wider business travel ecosystem,” said BT4Europe chair Patrick Diemer.<\/p>\n
“BT4Europe is proud of the role we have played in building a coalition, working with partners and informing legislators in Brussels and across EU member states not to saddle business travel with unnecessary regulation.”<\/p>\n
MEPs on Thursday approved revised rules on package travel designed to protect consumers booking leisure trips. The updated directive, which has already provisionally been agreed with EU member states, clarifies which trips and services can be considered a travel package, and sets out the conditions under which consumers can cancel travel plans without a penalty.<\/p>\n
Critically, the revised text stipulates the directive \u201cdoes not apply to packages purchased on the basis of a general agreement for the arrangement of business travel\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) also applauded the change and \u201cstrongly supports\u201d excluding business travel from the directive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis\u00a0outcome\u00a0represents\u00a0an important recognition by EU policymakers of the distinct nature of business travel and responds to longstanding industry calls for legal\u00a0clarity,\u201d the association said in a statement.<\/p>\n
GBTA\u00a0also urged the European\u00a0Parliament\u00a0and EU member states\u00a0to “maintain\u00a0momentum\u00a0on the remaining passenger rights legislative proposals,\u00a0as\u00a0the current\u00a0legislative framework\u2019s\u00a0lack of clarity\u00a0continues to\u00a0create\u00a0operational\u00a0uncertainty\u00a0and administrative\u00a0burdens\u00a0for business travellers\u00a0and the\u00a0companies that support\u00a0them”.<\/p>\n
The European Council must now formally adopt the revised Package Travel Directive, which will then be published entered into force. EU countries will have 28 months from the date of entry into force to transpose the new rules into national law, and a further six months to start applying the new provisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business travel associations have welcomed revisions to the EU\u2019s Package Travel Directive, which were approved by the European…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,5642,13135,30387],"class_list":["post-822789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-management","tag-rss2","tag-travel-management"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116221367485887030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}