The EU Aviation Security Committee (AVSEC) informally endorsed the European Commission proposal for the recognition of liquids bought in selected third country airports at a meeting held on May 30-31.

ETRC says it has been informed of two minor changes to the proposal, but nothing that radically alters its scope and it says it is delighted with the outcome of this meeting.Once adopted, the European Union will be able to agree to accept duty free liquids from selected third countries as being secure, thereby allowing transfer passengers to continue their journeys without having to surrender their goods.

This legislation will ultimately provide a more secure framework for European retailers to sell to outbound transferring passengers, and opens the door to solving the problems on key transfer routes.

Formal adoption should take place in July following official procedures that have to be adhered to. ETRC will be using the interim period to work with the European Commission on identifying the key airports.

ETRC has also been informed that a new proposal will be presented in July which will allow the European Commission to follow the same procedures to recognise selected third country airlines which is also excellent news.

This is a major breakthrough and is the result of much hard work and lobbying across Europe, but the industry must not lose this momentum. The wide implementation of this proposal is crucial if it is to serve any purpose. ETRC says the industry needs to push to have as many third country airports included on this list as quickly as possible. That is the immediate challenge for ETRC and its member companies.

EU legal procedures mean that it will be highly unlikely that any third country airports are recognised until after the summer season. This is due to strict EU rules for the adoption of new legislation.

ETRC says it will have more information as details of the timetable for adoption become clearer.

Finally, ETRC took the opportunity today to extend its thanks to all those who have made such great efforts over the last few months. Thanks to all that hard work, it adds that the EU has taken the first and most important step towards bringing our industry back to normal.

ETRC President Frank O? Connell said; ?I am absolutely delighted with the endorsement of the European Commission proposal yesterday by the AVSEC Committee. This legislation creates the mechanism which will allow many of our problems to be solved. Our challenge now is to maximise the number of airports we can get recognised.?

COMMENT: This is clearly great news and congratulations again to the hard work put in by the ETRC and all those who have supported it. But this is not game over.

This progress has now created the mechanism for fixing the transfer problem and it is the biggest obstacle cleared to date, but there is still much hard work ahead, including fixing the transfer passenger problems in the US and Australia.