In a debate in plenary at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday 23 November, MEPs expressed their discontent and fears to Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc regarding a lack of transparency at the European Commission about the talks on international aviation agreements.
MEPs kept raising the question of whether the European Commission was really planning to get Parliament on board in the current and future talks with third countries on aviation questions. Wim van de Camp (EPP, The Netherlands) asked for Parliament to be kept informed by the Commission before, during and after the negotiations. Others, such as Isabella de Monte (S&D, Italy), called for Parliament to formulate proposals. Matthijs van Miltenburg (ALDE, The Netherlands) queried why the Commission was restricting access to negotiation documents to rapporteurs, shadow rapporteurs and others directly involved in the question rather than making them accessible for all MEPs.
Several MEPs pointed out that cooperation between the two institutions is essential for getting Parliament to back international agreements later on. They gave the example of the free-trade treaty between the EU and Canada (CETA), saying that the problems surrounding with it were due to the lack of communication from the Commission about progress in the negotiations (see EUROPE 11674).
Violeta Bulc said that the Commission would cooperate with the European Parliament as laid down in the interinstitutional framework agreement and measures in the treaty on the functioning of the European Union (Article 218) on the negotiating process for international agreements with countries outside the EU. She said that the reason some negotiating documents were not fully accessible was because of the sensitivity of a number of issues.
The Commission currently has the go-ahead for negotiating aviation agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, ASEAN nations and Turkey (see EUROPE 11567). A Council decision is awaited on 1 December about giving the Commission the power to negotiate an aviation agreement with Armenia. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)