As the European Union prepares to ban suspect airlines from operating in the 25 nation bloc, some in the industry question the effectiveness of a "blacklist" and say more must be done to ensure passengers' safety.

France and Belgium this week identified 14 companies prohibited from using their airports or airspace, and the European parliament is discussing a proposal that would force all 25 member states to draw up and share similar lists.

Airline industry representatives were mixed about the effectiveness of such action, with some saying it was a good first step and others calling it punitive and unhelpful.

"A blacklist does nothing to encourage safety at all," said Anthony Concil, spokesman for the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA). "So far it seems to be more of a political reaction than a thought-through way to further improve the already good safety record of the industry."

IATA introduced a voluntary safety audit in 2003 as a way to standardize airline safety ratings, a move some 58 of its 265 member carriers have taken up so far and one IATA's Council said is more able to boost safety than a "name and shame" approach.

The Association of European Airlines, which represents airlines, said the need for a blacklist at all reveals a breakdown in safety checks resulting from different standards in different countries.

"There is something wrong with the system that allows (some countries) to certify an airline that we (in Europe) don't think is safe," AEA spokesman David Henderson said.

He said a blacklist would be helpful if it were followed up by checks with authorities in the suspect airlines' countries to make sure standards were raised.

"It's in everybody's interest that it stays on that blacklist for as short a time as possible," he said.

A string of deadly air crashes in August has increased pressure to strengthen the blacklist initiative, originally put forward by the EU executive Commission in February.

As it now stands, the proposal would oblige states to share information on airlines they have banned, but the question of a unified method for this process has been left open.

"Information exchange between member states on the one hand and between member states and the EU would still need to be enhanced to establish common criteria for such a list," said European Aviation Safety Agency spokesman Daniel Holtgen, adding his agency welcomed the initiative.

The Commission is now pushing to strengthen the proposal to give it the final say on whether or not to ban an airline. It also wants a ban in one country to apply across the EU.

But member states have blocked similar proposals in the past, and experts say they are unlikely to hand the Commission the right to say what carrier can take off or land within their borders.

"This is fundamentally an issue of sovereignty," one aviation expert said. "The consequences would logically be a European flight ban... but I don't know whether member states will go as far as to accept that."