Brussels, 24/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - Whereas talks are continuing between the European Commissioner for transport, Loyola de Palacio, and the American authorities to find a compromise over the ban on aircraft equipped with hushkits in Europe, the European Parliament is preparing a resolution on the subject for its end of March session. Tuesday, Mrs. Palacio had contacts qualified as "constructive" with the American Undersecretary of State for Trade, David Aaron. Without radically changing position, the two parties undertook to continue the dialogue. The European goal seems to be to secure the suspension of the procedures begun by the United States against the EU before the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), in exchange for a further suspension of the European regulation that should take effect on 4 May.
The European Parliament's Transport Committee, for its part, has adopted a resolution by which the EP is prepared to consider a postponement of the regulation's entry into force while waiting for the outcome of the international agreement on more binding international standards for aircraft, that should be reached at the latest during the Assembly of the ICAO in September 2001. The "Environment" Committee is also preparing a draft resolution that could be merged with the Transport Committee's draft, probably hardening its tone. Differences parallel to those of Member States in Council remain between the positions of the MEPs.
For the chair of the Transport Committee, Konstantinos Hatzidakis (GR, EPP) who has just met the relevant American authorities, "it is clear that without a withdrawal of the procedure under Article 84 of the ICAO by the United States, the dialogue cannot really progress". According to him, even though insufficiently, the American stance has progressed, notably because the latest letter from the American Secretaries for Trade and Transport to Commissioner de Palacio no longer refers to the definitive suspension of the European regulation, but to "satisfactory suspension". The MEPs have invited their counterparts in Congress' Transport Committee to come to Brussels to discuss the issue.