It was therefore little surprise that the MEPs, who were present at the plenum, discussed easing the flight ban. They acknowledged the decision of the EU Transport Ministers to follow the proposals of Eurocontrol to measure air quality in six-hour intervals. Apart from that, three flight zones would be created: a total flight ban would be imposed on the first with high ash concentration, the second, with moderate exposure to ash particles, would be subject to the decision of the individual Member States whether flights would be permitted or not, whilst the third, without ash particles, could resume air traffic without restrictions.

The votes, which have been postponed by the European Parliament, include among others both the Prospectus Directive and the Directive on Aviation Security Charges.

The vote in the competent Economics Committee on the so-called Prospectus Directive, which is supposed to guarantee better information concerning the emission of shares, bonds and other securities, was unfortunately a great disappointment: it is neither planned for capital market prospectuses to be available in the language of the Member State, where securities are sold, nor will it be made compulsory to hand them out to investors. The MEPs did also not attach much importance to transparency, after all, they voted against a central homepage, which would give an overview and an insight into all prospectuses. The plenum now provides the last opportunity to remedy these gaps in the Directive.

The starting position with regard to aviation security charges, whose legal framework has to be reformed, is significantly better. The report of the Austrian MEP Jörg Leichtfried from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats states that concerning charges it had to be specified in detail, how high the actual costs of safety measures would be for each individual passenger. Apart from that, the report says that only those costs for safety measures at airports have to be paid for by passengers, which are stipulated at EU level. Any costs beyond that have to be financed by the Member States and not by passengers.

In addition to these two reports, it had also been planned to vote on the discharge of all EU institutions, which will now also take place in May. The debates in the European Parliament on the individual legislative texts, however, took place as planned.