The European Commission (EC) is preparing an imminent revision of an aviation policy that may take aim at the major Gulf airlines and their increasing penetration into the European market.
Reuters reported Feb. 10 that the EC, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union (EU), will seek to penalize unfair competition by imposing duties, or suspending services or rights of a non-EU airline that is deemed to have enjoyed illegal subsidies or other favorable treatment, such as preferential slot allocation from its home government.
The news agency said the measures were in a draft proposal that it had seen. 
An EC spokeswoman told ATW the Reuters story was based on a leaked document, on which she could not comment.
However, ATW understands that work on a revision of current aviation policy is underway and the EC hopes to have it adopted as early as the end of April. The details contained within it are unknown.
Several major European carriers, such as Air France and Lufthansa, have complained of unfair competition from the three major Gulf airlines, Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. Their complaints echo those of several of the US majors, which have recently revived these arguments with the Trump administration.
Although Lufthansa has recently signed a multi-faceted cooperation agreement with Etihad on topics that include codesharing, catering and maintenance services, it has continued to object to what it says are unfair subsidies paid to the Gulf airlines.
Ironically, Reuters said, the new regulation, if passed, would replace one adopted in 2004 to counter alleged unfair pricing policies by US carriers on transatlantic routes. Reuters said it had never been put into practice and was effectively a dead letter.