of airports, stricter security measures or the commercial practices of certain airlines18. The existing regulatory framework has not been helpful in resolving these issues, as its wording has caused major interpretive problems, leading to an intense but not less controversial activity by the Court of Justice of the European Unión -CJEU-19. In particular, the regime regarding compensation and assistance outlined in Regulation No. 261/2004 has been interpreted, refined and expanded through numerous rulings, resulting in a kind of “corpus” of obligatory reference. The dissatisfaction of air transport users has been a recurring issue for years, one that has not gone unnoticed by the Union, which has not only recognised its concern on the matter, but has also adopted various initiatives since the beginning of this century20. In fact, one of the goals of EU legislation regulating passenger rights is to guarantee a minimum and harmonised level of protection for these passengers. In strict terms, a high level of protection. Consequently, the European Union has developed rules to safeguard passengers across all transport modes21, including in the area of package travel22. Furthermore, adopting a comprehensive approach, the Commission published in 2011 a list of the rights 18 See the European Commission’s Communication to the European Parliament and the Council of 11 April 2011 on the implementation of Regulation No. 261/2004, COM (2011) 174 final, p. 3. Furthermore, the bibliographic review on passenger complaints conducted by FOX, S. J. and MARTÍN-DOMINGO, L., “EU Air Passengers´ Rights Past, Present and Future…”, cit., pp. 278 y ss. 19 This is also noted by MARCO ARCALÁ, L. A., “El futuro marco de protección de los pasajeros aéreos en el Derecho de la Unión Europea: la modificación en curso de los Reglamentos nº 261/2004 y 2027/1997”, Revista de Derecho del Transporte, nº 19, 2017, p. 50, who rightly argues that “it is not a good solution for a judicial body to frequently act in a quasi-legislative manner due to the passivity of the true legislative bodies”. 20 An analysis of these goes beyond the scope of this work, so for an approach to these initiatives, refer to GUERRERO LEBRÓN, M.ª J., “Remedios no jurisdiccionales para la tutela del pasajero aéreo”, in ZUBIRI DE SALINAS, M., El contrato de transporte de viajeros: nuevas perspectivas, Thomson Reuters Aranzadi, Cizur Menor, 2017, pp. 144 y ss.; or PÉREZ MORIONES, A., “Hacia la consolidación de la resolución alternativa de conflictos…”, cit. 21 Thus, Regulation (EU) 2021/782 of the European Parliament and the Council of 29 April 2021, on the rights and obligations of rail travellers, OJ L 172, 17 May 2021; Regulation (EU) No. 1177/2010 of the European Parliament and the Council of 24 November 2010, on the rights of passengers travelling by sea and inland waterways and amending Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004, OJ L 334, 17 December 2010; or Regulation (EU) No. 181/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 February 2011, on the rights of passengers travelling by bus and coach and amending Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004, OJ L 55, 26 February 2011. Moreover, in the words of the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, “The European Union is the only area in the world where citizens are protected by a full set of passenger rights. However, these rights need to be better known and easier to understand and enforced. Our rules should also provide more legal certainty to passengers and the industry.”—see the press release of 13 January 2020, “Less than half of EU travellers are aware of EU Passenger Rights,” https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_19_6814. 22 Two directives have been issued on package travel: Directive 90/314/EEC, of 13 June 1990, on package travel, package holidays and package tours, OJ L 158/59, 23 June 1990, later replaced by Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel services, OJ L 326/1, 11 December 2015. 36 ARÁNZAZU PÉREZ MORIONES
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