Luxembourg, 27/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The strong point at the Transport Council on 27 June in Luxembourg was the adoption of conclusion on the Commission communication on external Community aviation policy, which will act as a road map for developing this Community policy in the future. The Council's conclusions ratifies the line it has followed since June 2003 in the search for complementarity between Member States and the Commission in external aviation relations and acknowledges that “considerable experience had been acquired in the implementation of this first raft of measures”. While highlighting the need to coordinate action of Member States and the Commission for getting existing bilateral agreements in compliance with Community law, the Council underlines that the “bilateral system of agreements between Member States and third countries, will remain, at least for an initial period, the main foundation of international relations in the aviation sector”. Global agreements between the Community and third countries means that Member States have to be able to continue to negotiate supplementary traffic rights and commercial questions with these countries, in parallel with negotiations at a Community level “during the transition period that is expected to lead to a conclusion of open airspace agreements”. The Council is committed to examining “with interest”, requests concluded with China and Russia and will examine the added value in all new global agreements with third countries at a Community level before giving the Commission a mandate for beginning negotiations. The Commission said that it fully endorses the Council's conclusions. By adopting the decisions on the agreement on certain aspects of air services with Chile (which the Commission negotiated on the behalf of the Community), the Council gives a green light for the signature and provisional application to be introduced soon.
The Council also reached a political agreement for a Community air traffic control licence. The compromise text introduced in a detailed way, high Community standards on professional entry procedures, qualifications, initial training and linguistic knowledge required in English and the local language. The question of language was the most discussed issue between Member States due to the responsibility of air traffic controllers in security areas. A level of English that is equivalent to level 4 on the OACI assessment tests is required, while Member States can demand for security reasons, a knowledge of their own languages at the same level. France agreed to lift its reservation on higher linguistic requirements for “imperative” security reasons.
The European driving licence was blocked by a minority of countries: France, Germany, Poland, Denmark and Austria. The spokesperson for the German delegation mentioned a chilly atmosphere in the Council's room during this discussion.