State aid against take-off and landing rights: Berlin and Brussels have agreed on the Lufthansa rescue. Interview with EU Competition Commissioner Vestager about a “good compromise” – and that little is changing for Lufthansa.
tagesschau.de: Why was the compromise necessary at all?
Margrethe Vestager: Lufthansa is a big company. It is well managed, it is successful and it has market power. And if it gets nine billion euros, mostly through capital, plus loans, it’s in a much better situation than its competitors. But it is good if there is competition. Passengers have a choice and companies also have an incentive to improve their services.
tagesschau.de: Was it difficult to find the compromise?
Vestager: Cases like this are always difficult, plus that was the first case under a new regulation. We had discussed with the member states how we would deal with it when government aid was given to recapitalize companies and there was a distortion of competition. And after this debate, we laid down rules. This is the first case that has been dealt with according to these rules. And the first cases are always difficult because it is a precedent.
To person
Margrethe Vestager has been EU Commissioner for Competition since 2014. The pastor’s daughter was previously head of the Danish social liberals, minister of economics and home affairs, and vice-head of government.
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tagesschau.de: If Lufthansa and the federal government had agreed much sooner on a rescue package, i.e. before these new rules, would there not have been this discussion and decision?
Well, then we might not have gotten this regulation, which is very beneficial. Because if taxpayers’ money is added, they should also get something back for their risk. The company should also have an incentive to get out of government aid. Because managers get less bonus, for example, or shareholders receive less dividends. And this balance is very difficult to make, and that’s why we have been negotiating for quite a long time how to get this balance.
tagesschau.de: When does Lufthansa have to hand over the slots at all?
There are many, many planes on the ground right now. And that’s why we froze a rule very early on that says if you don’t use your slots, you will lose them. That means at the moment that every airline can keep every slot it has. The fact that Lufthansa must give up slots only comes into play when everything is back to normal, when all slots are actually used. Then a newcomer could initially get the slots for 18 months. So that would only be effective if everything went back to normal. At the moment, this regulation does not change anything for Lufthansa in this regard – except that it has nine billion euros in its bank account.
The interview was conducted by Michael Grytz, ARD studio Brussels
The tagesschau reported on this topic on May 30, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
