Brussels, 17/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Formal negotiations with the United States aimed at reaching an Open Skies transatlantic agreement resumed on 17 October in Brussels, attended by François Lamoureux, Director General at DG TREN. “This is the second round of talks that I open, and I trust it will be the last”, Mr Lamoureux said, after stressing the economic, social and political advantages of such an agreement. “We should chart a course to safe skies this year. But we should also chart a course that carries us beyond today's horizon to a world of expanded aviation opportunities for us and for Europe”, John R. Byerly, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Transportation Affairs, said. Mr Byerly will be negotiating the agreement with Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director at the European Commission. Byerly said there was no guarantee of success but that it was important to succeed as airports, consumers and companies are counting on this. The agreement, he went on, will be an example of an attempt to gear aviation towards consumers and growth.
The aim of the first stage is, for the EU, to obtain recognition of the concept of Community companies, which will allow any European company to travel to the United States from any EU airport. The EU also hopes to put an end to unilateralism when it comes to security and safety, and to define common rules on State aid and competition. The United States, for its part, seems willing to amend its ownership rules with an American law, that is, without linking these rules to the agreement with the EU. The Commission has received a clear Council mandate to negotiate, in two stages, an agreement that is “balanced and mutually beneficial”. The first stage will have “immediate effect”, Mr Lamoureux told the press, but will also comprise specific commitments so that balance is achieved at the end of the second stage. The situation is currently off balance in favour of US companies which have enjoyed bilateral agreement for the past 45 years, but the economic interests of the transatlantic market and the dynamism of the European companies will progressively push the United States to accept the move toward a balanced situation. “The question is that of knowing whether one wants an agreement this year or not (…) and I have every hope that we shall manage to initial an agreement at the end of the year, in November. Everything points to the Council following suit”, he said, given the support expressed by the ministers during the Transport Council in October. Negotiations will unfold during the whole week in Brussels, and a second session is expected to take place in Washington, in the week of 14 November.