Ryanair, Europe's largest international airline, has lodged appeals against eight separate EU decisions to block Ryanair access to documents in the Commission's ongoing State Aid investigations against tiny regional airports - Hamburg (Lübeck), Berlin-Schönefeld, Tampere, Alghero, Pau, Aarhus, Bratislava and Frankfurt (Hahn).
Ryanair's Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Jim Callaghan, said:
"The Commission's unlawful refusal to allow Ryanair to access documents in their investigation contravenes the principle of openness and transparency enshrined in the EU Treaty, and flies in the face of EU transparency legislation, which gives the public the right to access Commission documents. These unjustified refusals are damaging the travelling public, and deny Ryanair the ability to defend these ongoing State aid cases.
"The Commission fails to provide any justified reason for refusing access to these documents and is simply afraid to grant access to evidence of the Commission's biased and flawed application of the EU State aid rules.
"It is no coincidence that nine of the ten State aid investigations at European airports launched by the Commission since July 2007 concern Ryanair and easyJet. It is part of the Commission's policy aimed at undermining the competitors of ailing national airlines and there is no basis whatsoever for any of these bogus investigations which simply give Alitalia and other failing airlines some breathing space before the next ‘rescue' plan can be rubber-stamped.
"Ryanair will continue to expose the Commission's biased and flawed application of the State aid rules in favour of failed national carriers".
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