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EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels gives Berlin green light to temporarily rescue insolvent Air Berlin

The European Commission on Monday approved Germany's plans to grant insolvent Air Berlin a €150 million loan to allow it temporarily to serve passengers while selling off its business.

Published: 5 September 2017 09:03 CEST
Brussels gives Berlin green light to temporarily rescue insolvent Air Berlin
Photo: DPA

The 28-nation EU executive effectively refuted critics who say the German government is offering state aid for rival airline Lufthansa to build a monopoly with Air Berlin assets.

“The European Commission has endorsed under EU state aid rules Germany's plans to grant Air Berlin a temporary €150 million bridging loan,” the commission said in a statement.

“The measure will allow for the orderly wind-down of the insolvent airline Air Berlin without unduly distorting competition in the single market,” it added.

It said the German government on August 15th had notified the commission of its intent to grant a bridging loan to Air Berlin after Etihad, the main shareholder, withdrew its financial backing for the insolvent firm.

The aim of the loan, the commission said, is to allow Air Berlin to continue serving passengers in the “coming months”, while at the same time concluding negotiations to sell its assets and eventually exit the market.

Under EU rescue and restructuring rules, member states may support companies in difficulty as long as the measures are “limited in time and scope” and promote the common interest.

The commission said it has taken into account the fact that the loan will be paid out in instalments under strict conditions, with Air Berlin demonstrating its liquidity needs weekly.

It said Germany has also pledged to ensure the loan will either be fully repaid or the government in Berlin will submit a plan to wind down the airline.

Welcoming the EU's approval, Air Berlin chief executive Thomas Winkelmann said the government loan will help the airline as it looked for buyers.

“Since discussions began, we have done everything to ensure that as many jobs as possible are kept,” Winkelmann said in a statement.

Bidders for the airline's assets are due to put in their offer by September 15th, and several companies, including Lufthansa counts among them.

Lufthansa – which already leases 38 of Air Berlin's 140 planes – could buy up to 70 aircraft with as many as 3,000 crew for its low-cost subsidiary Eurowings, Bild newspaper reported recently.

Other interested airlines cited in media reports include package holiday firm TUI, British low-cost carrier EasyJet and Thomas Cook subsidiary Condor.

Winkelmann told Bild am Sonntag that the airline was in talks with “more than 10 interested parties, including several airlines”.

“There won't be just one but two or three buyers,” he added.

Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary claimed last month that Lufthansa has enjoyed an unfair advantage in the scramble for chunks of the business, especially valuable landing slots at major German airports.

Bavarian investor Hans Rudolf Woehrl lent his voice to O'Leary's criticism of the bridging loan.

BREXIT

OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

The EU has drawn up plans to make it easier for non-EU citizens to gain longterm EU residency so they can move more easily around the bloc, but Italy-based citizens' rights campaigner Clarissa Killwick says Brits who moved to the EU before Brexit are already losing out.

Published: 8 December 2023 14:34 CET
OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

With all the talk about the EU long-term residency permit and the proposed improvements there is no mention that UK citizens who are Withdrawal Agreement “beneficiaries” are currently being left out in the cold.

The European Commission has stated that we can hold multiple statuses including the EU long-term permit (Under a little-known EU law, third-country nationals can in theory acquire EU-wide long-term resident status if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years) but in reality it is just not happening.

This effectively leaves Brits locked into their host countries while other third country nationals can enjoy some mobility rights. As yet, in Italy, it is literally a question of the computer saying no if someone tries to apply.

The lack of access to the EU long-term permit to pre-Brexit Brits is an EU-wide issue and has been flagged up to the European Commission but progress is very slow.

READ ALSO: EU government settle on rules for how non-EU citizens could move around Europe

My guess is that few UK nationals who already have permanent residency status under the Withdrawal Agreement are even aware of the extra mobility rights they could have with the EU long-term residency permit – or do not even realise they are two different things.

Perhaps there won’t be very large numbers clamouring for it but it is nothing short of discrimination not to make it accessible to British people who’ve built their lives in the EU.

They may have lost their status as EU citizens but nothing has changed concerning the contributions they make, both economically and socially.

An example of how Withdrawal Agreement Brits in Italy are losing out

My son, who has lived almost his whole life here, wanted to study in the Netherlands to improve his employment prospects.

Dutch universities grant home fees rather than international fees to holders of an EU long-term permit. The difference in fees for a Master’s, for example, is an eye-watering €18,000. He went through the application process, collecting the requisite documents, making the payments and waited many months for an appointment at the “questura”, (local immigration office).

On the day, it took some persuading before they agreed he should be able to apply but then the whole thing was stymied because the national computer system would not accept a UK national. I am in no doubt, incidentally, that had he been successful he would have had to hand in his WA  “carta di soggiorno”.

This was back in February 2022 and nothing has budged since then. In the meantime, it is a question of pay up or give up for any students in the same boat as my son. There is, in fact, a very high take up of the EU long-term permit in Italy so my son’s non-EU contemporaries do not face this barrier.

Long-term permit: The EU’s plan to make freedom of movement easier for non- EU nationals 

Completing his studies was stalled by a year until finally his Italian citizenship came through after waiting over 5 years.  I also meet working adults in Italy with the EU long-term permit who use it for work purposes, such as in Belgium and Germany, and for family reunification.  

Withdrawal agreement card should double up as EU long-term residency permit

A statement that Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaries should be able to hold multiple statuses is not that easy to find. You have to scroll quite far down the page on the European Commission’s website to find a link to an explanatory document. It has been languishing there since March 2022 but so far not proved very useful.

It has been pointed out to the Commission that the document needs to be multilingual not just in English and “branded” as an official communication from the Commission so it can be used as a stand-alone. But having an official document you can wave at the immigration authorities is going to get you nowhere if Member State governments haven’t acknowledged that WA beneficiaries can hold multiple statuses and issue clear guidance and make sure systems are modified accordingly.

I can appreciate this is no mean feat in countries where they do not usually allow multiple statuses or, even if they do, issue more than one residency card. Of course, other statuses we should be able to hold are not confined to EU long-term residency, they should include the EU Blue Card, dual nationality, family member of an EU citizen…

Personally, I do think people should be up in arms about this. The UK and EU negotiated an agreement which not only removed our freedom of movement as EU citizens, it also failed to automatically give us equal mobility rights to other third country nationals. We are now neither one thing nor the other.

It would seem the only favour the Withdrawal Agreement did us was we didn’t have to go out and come back in again! Brits who follow us, fortunate enough to get a visa, may well pip us at the post being able to apply for EU long-term residency as clearly defined non-EU citizens.

I have been bringing this issue to the attention of the embassy in Rome, FCDO and the European Commission for three years now. I hope we will see some movement soon.

Finally, there should be no dragging of heels assuming we will all take citizenship of our host countries. Actually, we shouldn’t have to, my son was fortunate, even though it took a long time. Others may not meet the requirements or wish to give up their UK citizenship in countries which do not permit dual nationality.  

Bureaucratic challenges may seem almost insurmountable but why not simply allow our Withdrawal Agreement permanent card to double up as the EU long-term residency permit.

Clarissa Killwick,

Since 2016, Clarissa has been a citizens’ rights campaigner and advocate with the pan-European group, Brexpats – Hear Our Voice.
She is co-founder and co-admin of the FB group in Italy, Beyond Brexit – UK citizens in Italy.

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