ROME (AP) -- Italy is urging fellow European Union members to create EU-wide standards to make airlines safer and is suggesting penalties for blacklisted carriers, the transport minister said Wednesday.
Pietro Lunardi said Italy would not follow other European countries that have recently published lists of banned airlines, contending that such lists are useless as long as EU-wide standards are not established.
Lunardi said his proposals would be amendments to European rules that are being discussed, and include standardizing the training of safety inspectors and the criteria used to decide whether to ban an airline. He also suggested that a company found lacking by one country be automatically banned in all member states. Offending carriers should be fined, he said.
''In terms of security, everyone in Europe will speak the same language,'' he told reporters at a news conference.
Starting Sept. 8, EU states will meet in Brussels, Belgium, to work on standardizing rules to ban or suspend a company's flights, but individual countries have already taken action in an attempt to allay public fears about flying after a recent series of deadly crashes.
On Sunday, France published a list that includes six companies and Belgium followed its example Monday, releasing the names of nine banned airlines. None of the carriers named were on both lists.
Italy's civil aviation authority has published a ''whitelist'' of safe airlines but has refused to release the names of six carriers that are banned from flying here. Lunardi said that releasing such blacklists only creates confusion and panic among consumers, and added that none of the banned carriers were involved in the recent crashes.
Lunardi said his proposals included incentives for airlines to increase their safety standards, such as allowing companies that do not operate in Europe to voluntarily submit to inspections to receive an EU safety certificate that would increase their standing with European customers.
Lunardi said he has discussed his ideas with EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot and French Transport Minister Dominique Perben. The EU must approve the new rules by Jan. 30, 2006, he said.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
