An anonymous letter writer (WDP 6/02/04) asks why the EU is interfering with cut-price airlines like Ryanair. The truth is the bargain rates granted by Belgium's Charleroi airport to Ryanair amounted to illegal state aid and, more importantly, encourages an environmentally-damaging practice. As a Green Party candidate in this year's European elections, I welcome the ruling as a first step towards addressing the vast distortion of competition - both within the air transport sector and between different modes of transport. So-called cheap flights are not cheap when you take into account their overall costs. This ruling barely scratches the surface of hidden subsidies and tax-breaks benefiting the aviation industry. Aviation is incredibly heavily subsidised. UK aviation alone receives some £9.2 billion a year in tax breaks, and if you include costs to society like aviation's contribution to climate change and the ill-health effects of pollution then these come to a further £4 billion a year. We need to address the vast distortion of competition between air travel and other modes of transport, by introducing aviation fuel tax and taxes on pollution. London to Charleroi is not a long journey and in a sustainable European economy it would be cheaper on the train. The current trend towards cheap flights subsidised by taxpayers is an unacceptable waste of public funds.

Carol Kambites Green Party candidate for the European Parliament