Brussels, 15/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission welcomed progress made in negotiations with the United States to conclude an agreement on air services, which will replace the "Open Sky" agreements concluded between eight Member States of the EU and the US, and which were ruled against by the European Court of Justice. "The Commission welcomes the significant progress which has just been made, especially in terms of the ambitious time-table which was set", said Gilles Gantelet, the spokesperson of Loyola de Palacio, the Commissioner in charge of transport, stressing the "goodwill" and "the spirit of openness" of the US. This impression was shared by John Byerly, deputy American under-secretary of State for transport, who described the talks as "constructive".
The next meeting will be held in February 2004 in Washington, when a draft agreement will be drawn up, but it is extremely unlikely that it will be concluded: both parties have still to agree on several extremely delicate issues, on which little progress has been made, such as cabotage, night flights, and rules on ownership, pricing and State aid. Both sides have, however, expressed their willingness to reach agreement "as soon as possible".
The mandate given to the European Commission in June by the Council to negotiate the creation of a genuine "common transatlantic airspace" with the US is very broad (from environment to security, via ownership and competition), and aims to organise air services between the US and the EU, but also within the EU and the US. There are, however, several major, and highly sensitive, points outstanding: - cabotage: whereas American airlines may carry out "internal flights" between cities within the territory of the Member States of the EU which have concluded an "Open Sky" agreement with the US, European airlines do not enjoy the same rights. The Europeans, quite naturally, are calling for reciprocity. This is a "very difficult issue for us", said Mr Byerly, referring to "security" issues;- State aid: the aid granted by the American government to its aviation industry after the attacks of 11 September create competition distortion at the cost of the European aviation industry. For this reason, the Europeans hope to ban State aid to the industry, and for exceptional derogations to be granted only by means of a consultation mechanism;- ownership rules: on the Community territory, a foreign company may hold up to 49% of a European airline. In the US, the ceiling is 25%. A proposal is being examined by Congress to increase this to 49%, which may take some time;- pricing rules: although Europeans and Americans agree to a full liberalisation of prices, the EU insists for this to be done in respect of competition rules;- night flights: although this issue has not yet been raised in discussions, it is worth noting that the Europeans insist that this should be taken into account under international environmental legislation.
Lastly, it is worth noting that pending this agreement, which will replace the existing "Open Sky" agreements, both parties will also work to bring the agreements into line with Community law (on reservation systems, for instance).