Talks to persuade airline cartel IATA to update its 50-year-old rules made “good progress”, GEBTA's legal adviser Isabelle Leroy said.
But the EC has put a four month deadline on the sides coming to an agreement on agent accreditation or it will step in and make its own ruling on the issue.
The talks were held last week in Brussels between representatives from IATA, GEBTA and the EC.
Ms Leroy said all four areas where GEBTA, representing Europe's business travel agencies were discussed in the talks although single accreditation for agents across Europe was the main item.
“The EC thought there was room for further progress so there will be further negotiations. If at the end of four months, there is no result, the EC will step in and make a decision.
“We regard that as progress as it is putting IATA under pressure to come to an agreement,” she said.
The three other areas where agents want a rule change, a single European BSP, access to all airline fares and an EU Satellite Ticket Printer (STP) were also discussed.
Ms Leroy said that on the single BSP, the EC was planning to set up a pilot project to see if there was an alternative to the present system which agents say is slow and costly.
“But it also asked the two parties to negotiate on the issue so we regard that as progress as well,” said Ms Leroy.
She said on access to fares, the EC had asked its Director Generals for both competition and transport to look into the matter to see if there was any breach of EC regulations.
Ms Leroy said a “bit of progress” had been made on the EU STP but it would be better for agents if they had access to fares in all member states of the EC.
The next formal meeting will be held in February 2005.