Brussels, 18/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided to send letters of formal notice and reasoned opinions to eleven Member States which have concluded bilateral aviation agreements with the United States. These States are: France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malta. The Commission is also to send two reasoned opinions to Austria over its bilateral agreements with Syria, Cuba, China and Egypt. These decisions come under the ruling returned in November 2002 by the European Court of Justice on bilateral aviation agreements between the Member States of the EU and the United States (the “open skies” agreements). In its ruling of 5 November 2002, the Court stated that the bilateral aviation agreements between eight Member States (UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and Germany) and the US were in violation of Community law because they contained nationality requirements (reserving rights of traffic to the United States to their national carriers to the detriment of other European carriers) and provisions on fields which come exclusively under the aegis of the Communities (EUROPE of 6 November 2002). In light of this ruling, the Commission decided in July 2004 to call on the 20 Member States which had entered into bilateral agreements with the US, either the “open skies” variety or restrictive ones, to cancel them. At the time, the Commission brought infringement proceedings against 12 of these countries (EUROPE of 21 July 2004).
On Wednesday, the Commission decided to continue on this path and send reasoned opinions to France, Greece, Italy and Portugal under article 226 of the treaty, as all of these have concluded aviation agreements with the US but were not the subject of a Court ruling. These countries, which received a letter of formal notice back in July 2004, must now come into line with the Court ruling, otherwise the Commission may move to the third stage of the procedure and decide to bring the matter before the Court. The Commissioner has also sent out letters of formal notice to Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malta under article 226 of the Treaty. These countries, which has also concluded air agreements with the United States without being the subject of a Court ruling, must now communicate their comments to the Commission, which will then decide whether or not it will move to the second stage of the infringement proceedings by sending them a reasoned opinion.
Ahead of the resumption of aviation negotiations between the EU and the United States in Washington next week, the Commission has no plans at the moment to pursue infringement proceedings against Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, German, Luxembourg, the UK or Sweden, which all received letters of formal notice under article 228 of the Treaty in July 2004, because they have already been the object of a Court ruling. The next stage will be the reasoned opinion and then bringing the matter before the Court, with the key possibility this time of being able to ask for financial penalties to be imposed in the form of fines. Until now, only the Netherlands have been brought before the Court.
Whatever stage they are at, with this second package of measures the 20 Member States of the EU which have concluded aviation agreements with the United States, either “open skies” or restrictive, whether or not there is a Court ruling, will now be subject to an infringement procedure. Only Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovenia have not entered into these agreements.