Kallas, tested by a cloud of ash

Argo Ideon
, poliitika- ja majandus­­analüütik
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Siim Kallas’ term as European transportation commissioner will be remembered by the Icelandic ash cloud, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), and his ability to usually come clean while navigating various interests.  

Now again striving to become prime ministerial candidate in Estonia, a decade ago Siim Kallas (65) landed as vice president of the European Commission – probably, the highest-ranking Estonian politician of all ages. Still, for an average European, he’s next to nobody. For, who indeed could tell the difference between the bureaucrats sitting in Brussels?

While still in his first EU term as administrative issues commissioner, he was once asked if they had had any snow in Riga that year. «You need to understand how unimportant Estonia is, due to her smallness and location, to many institutions that shape opinions,» sighed the politician, not surprised by the question.

Fame by flights grounded

Even so, Mr Kallas was shot into Europe-wide limelight as an Icelandic volcano erupted in spring of 2010, pumping bulk of the continent’s air full of ash. Plains could no longer fly. The crisis, lasting about a week, cancelled a hundred thousand flights and affected some ten million air passengers.

Had Commissioner Kallas been found guilty, in European public eyes, of the chaos caused, that’d probably been the most massive failure of any Estonian – ever.

Somewhat activated in March 2010 already, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano got serious about «ashing» Europe in mid-April. As ash-clouds arrived over the continent, all the European countries could do was close up airspace, one by one. In a couple of days, only the Southern and Northern tips of Europe remained fit for flights. Passengers could not get home. Confusion set in regarding their specific rights, in the situation. Dark political clouds started gathering over the department led by Mr Kallas – criticism was voiced that the EU had not responded adequately to the crisis.

Still, Kallas the Transport Commissioner managed to push these clouds away, acting feverishly. According to Mr Kallas’ current chief of staff Margus Rahuoja, it actually surfaced during the crisis that the member states hadn’t handed European Commission enough powers to deal with consequences.  «Transport ministers of member states said to us: offer a pan-European solution.»

The thing was, even before Mr Kallas came into office, the commission had tried to bring activities in European airspace under one roof, so to speak. By employing Single European Sky (SES) principle, it was intended to break the old system where each state controls air traffic above it – imposing a more unified air traffic control in Europe.  However, several states battled against it. Independent flight control centres were not interested in the flights to go straight; rather, they wanted plains to linger longer above their respective countries – doing a zigzag or two, for instance, so the control centre could make more money.

According to Margus Rahuoja, as the crisis ended the commissioners joked: «Had the ash cloud stayed around for four more days, all the needed reforms could have been performed.» Even so, the volcano in Iceland opted to cease erupting.

The chaos in European traffic was enormous. Lion’s share of commission’s energy went to channel folks to use other forms of transport, temporarily. All kinds of means were employed – the UK, for instance, sent a warship to get their people off the islands in Spain. 

On April 23rd, Mr Kallas stepped in front of reporters in Brussels, declaring the situation was beginning to be solved. For the second day, about 28,000 flights were happening a day. Also, it had been clarified that, is such cases, travellers were entitled to get ticket money refunded or a seat on another flight, receive food and lodgings, but no compensation – as a volcano erupting was a very force majeure, an act of God.

Under the probable influence of the spring-time challenges, Mr Kallas grew promptly frustrated with European airports struggling with snow at the end of the selfsame year, not able to function normally in wintry conditions. «Snow is nothing extraordinary, in Western Europe,» he stressed.

Impacted by ash, the European Commission decided that things should be settled regarding passenger rights. The draft to European Parliament was submitted last year; this February they voted. Pursuant to the proposal, passengers for instance will be entitled to care, if a flight is late for over two hours for whatever reason (up now, all has depended on length of a flight). According to new rules, passengers need to be informed about the situation in 30 minutes, latest, after the planned flight time.    

How exactly it all starts to imply, will be settled during commission and European Parliament talks with EU member states, to start in May after the new EU parliament has been elected. 

For Mr Kallas, at the start of his second term as commissioner, the ash-cloud-crisis was an unexpected testing stone. In reality, he never hoped to get the transport portfolio. When meeting with Estonian journalists in Brussels, in December of 2009, Mr Kallas acknowledged he had been willing to continue on as administrative commissioner, and had given the corresponding promise to José Manuel Barroso, president of the commission.

Even so, hopes were alive for a new post, Mr Barroso thinking about shuffling the portfolios of the entire commission. Mr Kallas would have been interested in the economy and finances job; that, however, was not for him as, in 2009, Estonia wasn’t in the eurozone yet. The second option was the internal market post – but that would have meant involvement in angry battles between those for and against its expansion and shrinkage; Mr Kallas, already known as a supporter of free market, was next to unsuitable to step in as mediator.

«Least of all did I expect it would end up with transportation. I thought that was a job so desired so it had been surely promised to somebody, already,» Mr Kallas said three days after the choice was made. «The domain is colossal!»

Regarding Mr Kallas selected as EU transportation commissioner, an US foreign agency filed a secret memo. As stated in a document, published by Wikileaks: «The new transport commissioner, the Estonian Siim Kallas (61) has no definite background in the domain; even so, this ex-President (a typo, probably, by the writer of the memo – edit), foreign, and finance minister of the Baltic state, has secured himself the reputation of a smart doer, among the higher commission officials, incl. when it comes to supervision of the rotation of the more important jobs in the commission.»

Integration the keyword

At the start of 2010, Mr Kallas had no problems passing his hearing, at the European Parliament; among other things, he had to give an account regarding contradictions with use of body scanners at airports. On the basis of the hearings, the British economic newspaper Financial Times gave him a «satisfactory» mark.

Four years later, it’s probable that the commission’s vice president Kallas will not be working till the end of his second term. If Estonia is not sending a replacement, the portfolio will temporarily be picked by another commissioner – just as Mr Kallas himself did, in the spring of 2009, for a time assuming the role of commissioner Dalia Grybauskaitė who plunged into campaign for Lithuanian presidency.

As transport commissioner, the main trend of Mr Kallas might be captured by the word «integration». In various segments, he has moved towards unifying the local networks under a common European transportation blanket.

30 minutes to base corridor

The renewed transport network TEN-T must assume a base network role – down these corridors, goods and people are moved on the continent, thereafter using the local options to get to end-destinations. This will naturally be the task of new commissioners; even so, the goal is to get to a point, by 2050, that for most Europeans it takes no longer than half an hour to get to the base corridor.

The most landmark decision form the Kallas times will probably be the creation of the Connecting Europe Facility which, with a few struggles, fit into the 2014–2020 budget period. Never before has the EU had anything of the sort. Out of this very facility, main finances for Rail Baltica are supposed to come – provided the Baltic States will not drown the plan by mutual quarrelling.  

Mr Kallas did not make it to the Anniversary of the Republic celebration held in Pärnu this past Monday, however, having to prepare, in Brussels, for discussions over European railway reform at European Parliament session in Strasbourg.

«We need to create a single European railway area,» commissioner Kallas, wearing a dark red tie, told MEPs last afternoon. «In place of these 26 – or how many were there? – fragmented markets we have today.»

In December 2009, he had pointed Estonian journalists in Brussels to the huge task of integrating railways of various countries – to be tackled by the EU transport commissioner. Slowly but surely, the wheels of Europe keep a-rolling.

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