Sir, - Denis Staunton's recent reports on the EU Commission and Aer Lingus (Business Section October 11th and 26th), reveal something disquieting about the stance of Transport Commissioner Ms Loyola de Palacio: "She repeated a number of times her determination to resist demands from governments to be allowed to aid their national carriers and made clear that she believes the age of national airlines is drawing to a close in Europe." (October 11th)
"In a Commission with more than its fair share of free-marketeers, Loyola de Palacio is among the most ideologically-driven right-wingers." (October 26th).
There are two ominous issues here: (1) When confronted with emergent crises at home, are the democratically elected governments of Europe powerless in the face of a European Commissioner? If so, one has to conclude that the Commission and its incumbents have successfully placed themselves beyond the reach of democratic will; (2) Ms de Palacio has used her influential position (to which she is not elected), to further the tendentious view that the writing is on the wall for national airlines.
The doctrinaire behaviour here suggests more a commissariat in the pre-Gorbachev era than a supposedly democratic institution of the EU, though in this case the ideological cast is of the right rather than of the left. There's a lesson here that's worth remembering when we have to vote on the Nice Treaty again. - Yours, etc..
Pβdraig Hogan, Lwr. Cherryfield Avenue, Dublin 6