European Cabin Crew Association
EurECCA
European Cabin Crew Association (EurECCA): is made up of cabin crew unions from eight European countries, representing over 70% of organized cabin crew in Europe, promoting aviation safety as well as better living and working conditions.
ID: 444629814963-15
Lobbying Activity
Response to Sustainable transport investment plan
29 Aug 2025
The European Cabin Crew Association -EurECCA-, the largest independent cabin crew association across Europe, welcomes the European Commissions initiative to establish a Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP). Please, find attached the EurECCA's contribution.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of EU rules on air services
10 Jun 2025
EurECCA welcomes the call for evidence for an impact assessment with the aim to revise Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 on common rules for air services, aiming to make aviation more sustainable, resilient, and socially responsible, while preserving fair competition and high quality employment. EurECCA, the largest independent European Cabin Crew Association, is deeply invested in this revision to ensure that new rules close loopholes that undermine fair working conditions and conditions of employment. EurECCAs concerns centre on ending social dumping practices and strengthening labour standards and requirements in aviation. See attached document
Read full responseMeeting with Francesco Corti (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)
28 Apr 2025 · Labor mobility in the aviation sector
Meeting with Filip Cornelis (Director Mobility and Transport) and
2 Apr 2025 · Exchange of views on several topics: - Ensuring a just Transition for cabin crew, - Occurrence reporting for cabin crew - Extra EU wet leasing and revision of Air Service Regulation
Meeting with Stefan Olsson (Deputy Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)
13 Mar 2025 · Information on EurECCA’s intention to join the Civil Aviation Sectoral Social Dialogue Commission and views on relevant social acquis
Meeting with Leila Chaibi (Member of the European Parliament)
2 May 2023 · Working condition
19 May 2022
The European Cabin Crew Association (EurECCA) would like to highlight the point that EASA according Art.115 of the Basic Regulation should involve all the European Union Social Partners and other relevant stakeholders when it comes to social matters in the preparation of guidelines and/or opinions.
By the time being, EASA is excluding without any valid reason some relevant Cabin Crew social partners as EurECCA.
This way of functioning may call into question the legitimacy of some of EASA's positions since only a small and carefully selected group representing the cabin crew is allowed to participate. According to EurECCA, it represents a serious attack on the democratic spirit on which Europe was built.
EurECCA takes the opportunity of this evaluation to remind EASA of its fundamentals and reiterates its willingness to be included in the various working groups and decisions process.
The European Cabin Crew Association, EurECCA, represents, protects and develops the rights and needs of cabin crew all over Europe.
Established in Brussels since 2014, EurECCA is composed of cabin crew unions from EU member states and represent some over 33,000 cabin crew affiliates accounting for 70% of all organized cabin crews in Europe.
EurECCA works together with other associations in the field of civil aviation and social issues, basing itself on the principles of independence, respect and equality.
EurECCA is a democratic, political independent cabin crew only association based on democratic principles, solidarity and consensus.
At the National level, our affiliate unions are recognized social partners in their respective countries, participate and are intitled to negotiate and sign collective labor agreements with their own employers. They are also directly concerned with professional, technical and social matters in their respective country.
At the European level, EurECCA is an active social and technical partner in the European rules making political and technical process in contact with the EU Council, Commission and Parliament on cabin crew matters promoting safety on board, fair living and working conditions with a proactive anticipation and preparation in shaping meaningful legislation based on real-life experience.
EurECCA through its affiliate union members is already actively and directly involved and shares its expertise providing a practical “Know-How” in the different working group organized at European level:
- Status of observer with active participation and contributions in the meetings of the sub-group on social matters related to aircrews organized by the EU Commission on self-employment, enforcement of applicable law, work through temporary agency and pay-to-fly;
- Cabin Air Technical Committee in CEN TC436 to share feedback and give recommendations for the nature of a possible future Research project;
- Directly involved in new regulations package as Fit for 55 as well as the revision of the "EU Air Services Regulation" (Reg. 1008/2008);
- Joint Committee and the Expert Group meeting under the Agreement on Air Transport between Qatar and the European Community and its Member States;
- Cabin Air Technical Committee in CEN TC436 to share feedback and give recommendations for the nature of a possible future Research Project;
- FTL schemes in order to ensure the relevant applicable regulations within the provision of the different airlines’ CLA and participation to the crew management system and FRMS up-to-date in order to provide flight operations cabin crew with a clear view of the current situation at any time.
By being actively and directly involved in the different working group organized by EASA, EurECCA with its legitimacy, professionalism, expertise and experience and will bring more efficiency to the Agency.
For all these reasons, EurECCA asks EASA to apply Art.115 of the Basic Regulation and reiterates its willingness to be an EASA formal partner.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the provision of air services
6 Dec 2021
EurECCA welcomes the Commission's call for consultation to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation sector as part of the review process of Regulation (EC) 1008/2008.
The health crisis has highlighted the fragility of the aviation sector in particular the lack of social protection for the aviation workers with a consequent significant risk to the stability and ability of the aviation industry itself to recover from such an event with a consequent profound deterioration in socio-economic factors and working conditions especially for the socially weaker workers such as the cabin crew.
The European Commission has put a lot of efforts in the attempt to coordinate the Member States, especially during the pandemic crisis, however the lack of common rules and oversight has led to different measures in different member states and this is the case also when it comes to implement all social rules.
There is the urgency and necessity of including appropriate and proportionate effective measures to face the current recovery and to be prepared in case of future crisis.
EurECCA believes that within the impact assessment of the Air Services Regulation it would be beneficial to consider the implementation of a workplace directive as well as the revision of the working time directive for air crew, which currently lacks of occupational health and safety oversight.
The lack of specific EU directives covering OH&S for aviation workers at EU level is contributing to expose all of them, especially the cabin crew that we proudly represent, who have to work within some soft rules/recommendations or just under company risk assessments generally with no oversight.
The ongoing lack of specific directive covering the protection of the aviation workers health and safety is contrary to the one if the main requirements of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 153) which establishes that the EU has to adopt directives in the field of safety and health at work for all type of workplaces.
In such a context Member States have been left free to adopt stricter rules for the protection of workers, but this is not happening in the majority of EU member states and no oversight is available either.
The European Commission's new regulation must take into account high social standards as set out in its Communication of 1 March 2019 in order to ensure the principles of socially responsible behavior and thus encourage airlines to respect the same social standards avoiding unfair competition and social dumping in Europe.
The attached document is the contribution of the European Cabin Crew Association (EurECCA) to the call for evidence for an impact assessment on air services regulation (revision).
Read full responseResponse to Updating the EU Emissions Trading System
5 Nov 2021
We as EurECCA are representing 70% of all cabin crew in Europe and are their voice in Brussels.
The planned revision of the EU ETS is one of the major measures to significantly contribute to the goals set in the Paris agreement. For a sustainable and efficient approach throughout CO2 pricing in the form of emission trading , it is crucial not to only focus on specific geographical areas or industries but try to think and act globally.
The aviation sector as a globally operating industry is directly impacted by unilateral measures leading to distortion of competition which puts European jobs at risk and also to carbon leakage which is contradicting to the overall goal of reducing emissions.
Therefore the revision of the EU ETS must avoid these risks and simultaneously ensure a level playing field between EU and non-EU carriers. In order to ensure that, it would be beneficial to introduce a new system that focuses on the fraction of air traffic which are exposed to the actual risk of carbon leakage. Thereby the measures need to be balanced and defined in a smart way always ensuring conditions for a healthy and fair competition. As the distortion of competition is negatively linked to jobs, EurECCA emphasizes to include the view of the European cabin crews in the revision of the EU ETS.
The EU ETS should not put EU airlines at a competitive disadvantage and also create the potential for something akin to “carbon leakage”, thereby counteracting the desired environmental effect.
Read full responseResponse to Addressing distortions caused by foreign subsidies
21 Jul 2021
EurECCA welcomes the proposed new regulation to address distortions caused by foreign subsidies.
While European airlines and their employees are already suffering from unfair competition from non-EU airlines, this situation of unfair competition is becoming more and more untenable since the Covid-19 health crisis.
Currently, only Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 protects the independence of European aviation by prohibiting majority shareholdings. As regards the ownership of an EU carrier, Article 4(f) of Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 provides that an undertaking shall be granted an operating license by the competent licensing authority provided that "Member States and/or nationals of Member States own more than 50% of and effectively control the undertaking".
In parallel, Regulation (EU) 2019/712 addresses the problem of distortions of competition caused by subsidies to third country airlines, which give rise to unfair practices as capacity, price dumping.
However, there is no European legislation dealing with subsidies granted by third countries to European airlines. While ownership and control rules are respected, there is no mechanism in European legislation to deal with such practices through sanctions or prohibition. Furthermore, even below this 50% majority ownership threshold, the contributions and financial contributions of these third countries can have a clear distorting effect on the European aviation market.
EurECCA considers that the current proposal does not sufficiently clarify whether the new regulation will apply in parallel to Regulations (EC) 1008/2008 and (EU) 2019/712. It is therefore essential that this new regulation being complementary to the existing regulations with the scope to address third country direct and indirect subsidies to European airlines using a subsidy mechanism allowed by the lack of effective control by the European Union.
The facts show that it is very often a national airline or/and one already subsidized by a third country state that subsidizes and an European airline, without infringing Regulation (EC)1008/2008.
In this case, it is indeed a mechanism of disguised subsidies made possible by a "domino effect".
European airlines already have to comply with numerous obligations in terms of respect for the environment, consumer protection and the social protection of their employees, whereas certain third country airlines do not have such costs constraints and at the same time also benefit from subsidies. This further distorts the competitiveness of EU airlines, which are subject to scrutiny and often face appeals when they receive state aid.
EurECCA would particularly welcome clarification from the Commission on the interpretation of Chapter 6, Art. 40, paragraph 6:
“This Regulation is without prejudice to the application of Regulation (EU) 2019/712 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Notifiable concentrations, as defined in Article 18 of this Regulation, involving air carriers shall be subject to the provisions of Chapter 3. Public procurement procedures, as defined in Article 27 of this Regulation, involving air carriers shall be subject to the provisions of Chapter 4.”
In addition, the new proposed regulation covers three “components”: a) concentrations, b) procurement and c) all other market situations. The paragraph above covers the first two and clarifies that they are subject to certain chapters of the new regulation. There is however no mention of component c), which is the one that applies to examples of ownership and control cases in EU airlines.
Read full responseResponse to Updating the EU Emissions Trading System
26 Nov 2020
The European Cabin crew Association fully supports E4FC feedback:
"E4FC supports the ambition of the EU to reduce carbon emissions. European airlines have long been working to reduce their CO2 output with investments in new aircraft and technologies, the development and use of sustainable aviation fuels, operational improvements and the participation of aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) as well as the global carbon offsetting program, CORSIA.
The European Green Deal is a comprehensive policy approach, encompassing several elements applicable to aviation, most markedly the revision of the EU ETS and the “ReFuel Aviation” initiative promoting sustainable fuels. It is clear that the increased efforts under the European Green Deal will require investments and significantly add to the costs of European airlines, thereby negatively impacting the global competitiveness of European network carriers. At the same time, the very mechanisms that put EU airlines at a competitive disadvantage also create the potential for something akin to “carbon leakage”, thereby counteracting the desired environmental effect. An example is the current EU ETS:
The current scope covers only flights to, from and within the European Economic Area (EEA) but does not include flights between the EEA and third countries. This means on a trip from the EEA with a transfer at a European hub, the feeder flight is subject to the ETS. On a trip with a transfer outside the EEA (such as Istanbul, Dubai or, in the future, London), the ETS does not apply. This does not only put EU airlines and EU hubs at a competitive disadvantage, but it also encourages price-sensitive passengers to fly detours via hubs outside the EU, potentially increasing fuel consumption and emissions. A similar effect would occur if the proposed “Refuel Aviation” legislation obliges airlines to use expensive sustainable fuels in Europe, but not elsewhere.
There are solutions to avoid such distortions und unintended environmental consequences. The introduction of a carbon border adjustment mechanism for example can ensure the level playing field between EU airlines and third country carriers. However, if the EU cannot succeed in this effort, feeder flights to EEA hubs could be exempted from the ETS, thereby levelling the playing field. Alternatively, comprehensive air transport agreements (CATAs) could make it a condition that third country airlines are bound by EU environmental legislations, also ensuring a level playing field.
E4FC therefore calls upon policy makers to ensure that sustainability standards or any other mechanisms under the European Green Deal are crafted in such a way that competitive disadvantages and unintended environmental consequences are avoided.
This is particularly important at a time where the COVID-19 pandemic has hit European aviation hard and airlines will struggle for years to regain footing. The pandemic has already led to an unprecedented loss of jobs in the aviation sector: In Europe alone, six million jobs are at risk. The European Green Deal should not be responsible for increasing this tally – and it is our view that it does not need to - if legislations are smart and directed to ensure a level playing field."
Read full responseMeeting with Inge Bernaerts (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)
22 Sept 2015 · Employment conditions in civil aviation