In the never ending EU drama the EU has reprimanded the Dutch with a letter about ticket vouchers.
When your flight is cancelled due to COVID-19 you should get a refund or you can receive a voucher for a later flight. But instead Dutch travel agencies only do vouchers so they don't have to pay for refunds.
The EU happily announced today that new guidelines and regulations would give everyone access to refunds, thus protecting the rights of travelers.
https://twitter.com/dreynders/status/1260612292602998785But the Dutch government supports the vouchers scheme because people who were going to travel did already spend their money anyway and thus had the 'financial headroom' to do so and have no immediate need for a refund. (actual quote from our government)
Plus they just wired 4 billion to KLM part of KLM Air France, which they partly own and is the most notorious for issuing such vouchers instead of refunds.
The EU is angry and has send a letter condemning this and demands our PM to press for refunds as well as compensate travelers in case the travel agency or airlines do not or can't as this was agreed on a European level.
Our PM did a bit of Dutch Directness and said he would continue to support the vouchers as the EU has no method to enforce this agreement or sanction us if we ignore their guidelines.
He said that he had a few vouchers himself and we should show some solidarity with the airlines and travel companies instead.
Which was another jab at the Italians, Spanish and others who keep hurling insults at us for not showing 'solidarity'.
