The Council of the European Union is preparing to sign an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on certain aspects of air services, according to a proposal for a Council decision published on Friday 4 April. The purpose of this agreement is to bring the bilateral air services agreements between sixteen Member States and Kazakhstan into line with EU law.
As the European Commission is authorised to open negotiations with third countries with a view to replacing certain provisions in existing bilateral air services agreements with an EU-level agreement, it launched negotiations with Kazakhstan in 2007. However, although an agreement was reached, Kazakhstan subsequently refused to sign it. Negotiations resumed in 2022 and the negotiators initialled a revised agreement in October 2024 (see EUROPE 13504/7).
The current agreement differs considerably from that of 2007. No provisional application is foreseen in the new draft agreement and several other provisions have been modified to take account of best practice resulting from experience with this type of agreement over the last sixteen years, according to the document.
This text does not create additional traffic rights over and above those provided for in the agreements listed in Appendix I and does not change the number of air carriers that may be designated under bilateral arrangements. Traffic rights will continue to be granted under bilateral arrangements.
The proposed decision: https://aeur.eu/f/gc1
And the appendix: https://aeur.eu/f/gc2 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)