Brussels, 19/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - As previously announced (EUROPE 15 November p 9), on Tuesday, the European Commission adopted a Communication on Tuesday during its weekly meeting in Strasbourg. This Communication deals with the consequences of the decision reached by the Court of Justice on 5 November condemning 8 Member States (United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany) for having concluded so-called "open-sky agreements" with the USA (see EUROPE 6 November p 13). Following the conclusions of the Court of Justice (the Member States involved, encroached on the competencies of the Commission and created competition distortions within the EU) the Commission is requesting: 1) the Member States which have been charged, to condemn the agreements declared illegal by the Court, as well as for countries which have concluded similar agreements with the USA but which have not yet been charged (the Netherlands, France, Italy and Portugal) to condemn them (the Commission will be addressing letters to these countries); 2) the Council for a mandate to negotiate with the USA in view of concluding an agreement on the subject. The Commission will also be recommending that Member States do not conclude new agreements in the air transport domain before it has analysed the consequences of this decision itself, notably the sharing of competencies between the Commission and Member States on the subject, as any other bilateral agreement in the field of the same type of air services (containing a nationality clause and an infringement to the external exclusive competence of the Commission) would not comply with Community legislation.
The four Commission objectives are: 1) concluding a "new generation of agreements" at Community level, which would replace the agreements individually negotiated and provide Community airlines with the non-discriminatory law throughout EU territory for national and international flights. These agreements should also allow the airlines to grow or restructure (some thing that the current agreements prevent); 2) assisting with the implementation of the "reforms agenda" at an international level allowing for a more flexible economic system to be set up, which will allow airline companies more possibilities of making alliances etc. The Commission also believes that within the EU, a non-discriminatory mechanism for allocating traffic rights among airlines will be necessary in negotiations with the USA (once negotiated, all Community companies will have the right to fly to the USA). One of the objectives will be to include the aviation sector into the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO); 3) Ensuring effective competition. The Commission considers that strengthening competition rules is essential for carrying out a coherent international aviation policy and that the same powers are needed in international air traffic to and from the EU, as well as internally; 4) guaranteeing high levels of security and environmental protection in the agreements signed with international partners.
EU priorities for opening negotiations are: 1) key partnerships with the USA and later with Russia and Japan; 2) neighbouring countries. The Commission wants to create a regional air space of around thirty countries where all the airlines will have the same freedoms as those of European transporters. Negotiations began a long time ago and agreements that go in this direction have been concluded with Norway and Iceland (which are part of the market via their membership of the European Economic area), Switzerland (an agreement with the Community has already substantially liberalised air transport between the two parties) and the accession candidate countries; 3) developing countries. The EU will continue its assistance programmes that aim to put into place aviation safety standards in these countries; 4) representation of the Community in international bodies, as well as putting priority on the accession of the Community to the ICAO (the Commission already made a proposal on this several months ago).