Oh BBC, you’re still brilliant to me:
The European Commission is standing its ground.
“We are not modifying our law and we are not backing down,” Isaac Valero-Ladron, spokesman for climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard, told Thursday’s news conference in Brussels.
“If the Chinese want to do business in Europe, like open a restaurant or something, they have to comply with the health and safety requirements. This is not that different… if you want to operate in Europe you have to respect the law.”
And as aviation pricing is now EU law, it would indeed be tough for the bloc to amend or annul.
There’s talk in some quarters of a trade war; but given the piffling costs, and the fact that all airlines have to pay exactly the same fees, it’s hard to see how even a waving of handbags is justified.
