Programme & Agenda
Thursday, 28 September 2023 – for all delegates
Morning Arrival of delegates
14h00 – 17h00 Joint session of the ECTAA Technical Committees – Impact of EU sustainability initiatives on
travel and tourism
Guest speakers from the Commission and stakeholders on:
- EU actions on climate change
- Commission proposals on Green claims and Empowering the consumer for the green transition
- Commission proposal on EU Count Emission
- Corporate Social Responsibility Directive
17h00 – 18h30 Insuring travel companies through a guarantee fund
- Exchange of views in presence of delegates of EGFATT, ECTAA, HATTA and representatives of the Greek Authorities
20h00 – 22h00 Get together and dinner – for all delegates
Programme & agenda – cont’d
Friday, 29 September 2023
9h00 – 13h00 Separate meetings of the technical committees (in parallel)
Legal Committee
- Review of PTD / communication plan
- Spanish Decree on transfer of customer details for sale of car rentals and accommodation
- Update on airlines’ name correction policy and adequacy with GDPR
- Payment directive
Air Matters & Technology Committees:
- Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS)
- Better protection for passengers and their rights iniative
- IATA update
Sustainability Committee:
- Presentation of Roundtable on Human Rights in Tourism
- ECTAA sustainability roadmap and work programme
- Sustainability standards for travel associations
13h00 Lunch and departure of delegates
Plenary Session on Sustainability
Athens, 28 September 2023, 14h00-17h00 GMT
14h00 – 14h30 Welcome words of ECTAA, HATTA and GNTO
Mr. Frank OOSTDAM, President of ECTAA and Lysandros TSILIDES, President of FedHATTA: Welcome words
Mr. Dimitris FRAGAKIS, Secretary General of GNTO: Introduction of GNTO
Ms. Angela GEREKOU, President of GNTO: Sustainability efforts in Greece
14h30 – 15h10 EU Climate Action
The industry faces profound impacts from climate change – impacts that are already being felt. We have seen this summer extremely high temperatures, wildfires sustained by these high temperatures, unpredictable weather patterns and floods, which have disrupted tourist activities and destroyed nature and infrastructure.
Ms. Laura MAANAVILJA, Deputy Head of Unit, DG CLIMA, European Commission, will present the EU Climate Action and what this means for Member States and industries, including the travel and tourism industry.
Q&A on the climate actions of the EU and industry.
15h10 – 16h00 EU Green Claims proposal
The Green Claims proposal adopted by the Commission in March 2023 aims to address greenwashing, and protect consumers and the environment. The legislative proposal sets minimum requirements on the substantiation and communication of voluntary environmental claims and environmental labelling in business-to-consumer commercial practices.
More specifically, to ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable and verifiable environmental information on products, the proposal includes:
- clear criteria on how companies should prove their environmental claims and labels
- requirements for these claims and labels to be checked by an independent and accredited verifier and
- new rules on governance of environmental labelling schemes to ensure they are solid, transparent and
Ms. Malgorzata GOLEBIEWSKA, Team Leader – Environmental Footprint, DG ENV, European Commission will present the Green Claims initiative and the link with the proposal Empowering consumers in the green transition (ECGT).
Q&A on the green claims initiative.
16h00 – 16h20 Coffee break
16h20 – 17h00 CountEmissionEU proposal
The proposal adopted in July 2023 aims to overcome the barriers that prevent harmonising the measurement and calculation of greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate its uptake in the transport sector. It sets out a common regulatory framework for greenhouse gas emissions accounting of transport services across the entire multimodal transport chain, thus creating a level playing field between modes, segments, and the Union’s national networks. The increased transparency on the performance of various services should lead to incentives for market players to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make transport more efficient and sustainable. This Regulation does not make greenhouse gas emissions reporting mandatory.
Mr. Niccolò PIERI, Policy Officer, DG MOVE, European Commission will make a presentation on the CountEmissionEU proposal and how this links with other initiatives, such as the CSRD, the green claims initiative and the development of an environmental label for flights.
Q&A on the CountEmission proposal.