AER LINGUS HEATHROW CEASEFIRE - Aer Lingus has called a ceasefire with the European Commission in a legal battle regarding the awarding of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow Airport.
Next month, the European Court of Justice was due to hear a case that was being taken by the airline against the Commission. Aer Lingus initiated the action in 2013 following a 2012 decision by the European Commission to award Virgin Atlantic coveted Heathrow slots that British Airways owner IAG was being forced to divest as part of conditions attached to its takeover of BMI, formerly known as British Midland. The slots had to be awarded to an airline unconnected with IAG. But with Aer Lingus now a subject of a €1.4 billion takeover offer from IAG, the legal action against the Commission has effectively been suspended, reports the Irish Independent. IAG bought BMI from Lufthansa. The European Commission said that IAG would have to yield 12 pairs of slots at Heathrow as one of the conditions for being allowed buy BMI. Aer Lingus was interested in acquiring some of those slots but Virgin succeeded securing all of them following a European Commission decision. Virgin had argued that all the slots needed to be handed over to one operator so a credible challenge could be mounted against British Airways.
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GOVERNMENT TO APPOINT CLIMATE CHANGE COUNCIL - The Government will establish an expert advisory council on climate change and appoint its 10 members later this week, sources have confirmed. The council’s primary purpose is to assess Government progress in cutting carbon emissions. The new body is seen as a landmark in the development of State climate policy, writes the Irish Times. It will be chaired by economist John FitzGerald, who retired from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) last year. The 10-member council will comprise four ex-officio members from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Teagasc, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and the ESRI, as well as six independent members. Professor of Environmental Policy at University College Dublin Frank Convery, and professor emeritus of European Agricultural Policy in the Department of Economics at Trinity College Alan Matthews, are expected to be appointed to the council. Perhaps controversially, Professor John Sweeney of NUI Maynooth, considered by many as the State’s foremost authority on climate change, is not expected to be included. The Government’s long overdue climate change Bill, designed to transition the State to a low-carbon economy by 2050, enters committee stage in the Dáil this week.
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ONLINE FIRM HEADING FOR ITS BIG DAY - A Cork business has found a novel way to help couples secure a wedding venue. Weddings have always been about tradition, but technology is now playing a bigger role as more couples go online to organise their big day. That’s according to Cork entrepreneur Ciara Crossan who, seven years ago, was the first to launch a website to allow engaged couples identify available dates for wedding receptions at a range of hotels. WeddingDates.ie started in late 2008 with just 30 venues. It now offers 200 in Ireland and, since its 2012 launch, weddingdates.co.uk has built up a database of over 350 hotels and venues across England, Scotland, and Wales, says the Irish Examiner. “We now get 15,000 to 20,000 users a month browsing and making enquiries on our website in Ireland. Since we launched in the UK our website has generated 40,000 enquiries and resulted in 3,500 wedding bookings across the UK. In the same period in Ireland enquiries on the site have resulted in 2,500 weddings booked,’’ said Ms Crossan.
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CAMERON TO DEMAND MINISTERS QUIT GOVERNMENT IF THEY CAMPAIGN FOR BREXIT - David Cameron is to tell cabinet ministers they must quit the government if they want to campaign for Britain to leave the EU, as he prepares to face down hardline Conservative eurosceptics. The British prime minister expects to secure a new deal for Britain in a reformed EU and to fight for the UK to remain a member, throwing the government’s full weight behind the campaign, says the Financial Times. On Sunday, more than 50 Tory MPs formed a new group, Conservatives for Britain, warning Mr Cameron that they would fight for a “Brexit” unless he can “end the supremacy of EU law over more matters of British life”. Mr Cameron admits he cannot win over “irreconcilables” in his own party and will play tough with them, telling any ministers who want to campaign for a Brexit they must quit their government jobs. The prime minister has told colleagues at the current G7 summit in Bavaria that all ministers will have to toe the official line. Mr Cameron said that unlike Harold Wilson, who allowed Labour ministers to campaign on both sides of a Common Market referendum in 1975, he expected “everyone in government” to fight on the same side.
