Reducing compensation to symbolic amounts strips the regulation of its primary purpose: consumer protection and accountability. An independent economic analysis by Dr. Hinnerk Gnutzmann and Dr. Piotr Śpiewanowski confirms the scale of this risk. Their study concludes that under these proposed changes, total compensation actually paid to passengers would fall by 74 percent, while approximately 83 percent of delay claims would become effectively unenforceable.
EC261 is effective because it creates a clear financial incentive for airlines to minimize avoidable disruption and resolve claims properly.
This is not a theoretical concern. Airlines already reject 52 percent of valid initial claims, forcing many passengers to rely on legal representatives or consumer bodies to enforce their rights. If compensation levels fall to €83, pursuing claims would become economically unviable at scale, effectively shutting passengers out of meaningful enforcement. Rights may remain on paper, but access to justice would steadily disappear in practice.
But the consequences would extend far beyond compensation itself. EC261 is effective because it creates a clear financial incentive for airlines to minimize avoidable disruption and resolve claims properly. Weakening that deterrent would reduce pressure on airlines to maintain punctuality, while increasing the incentive to reject valid claims in the expectation that few passengers will be able to challenge those decisions.
The illusion of automated forms
To offset these reductions, the Council has placed significant political faith in automated compensation forms, framing them as a technological solution that can simplify claim filings. While digitization is a welcome step, automated paperwork cannot replace substantive legal rights. Even if these forms could make a positive impact, they lose all efficacy if compensation amounts decrease. Simplifying the filing process is entirely meaningless if the underlying claim is financially unviable to pursue; if compensation is cut to symbolic levels, meaningful enforcement becomes impossible, rendering any new paperwork system useless.
Preserving a global standard
