Brussels, 01/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 5 November 2002, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) paved the way for an external policy of the European Union on the field of aviation, by ruling that the bilateral aviation agreements concluded between several Member States of the EU and certain third countries are partially incompatible with the Treaty, and by recognising the existence of Community competencies in aviation matters. In the wake of this, the European Commission has presented several communications to implement the lessons to be drawn from the Court ruling, which led to the adoption by the Council, in June 2005, of a roadmap aiming to develop this essential aspect of the Community aviation policy and based on three principles: bringing existing aviation agreements into line, completing the joint airspace with the neighbouring countries between now and 2010 and the conclusion of global aviation agreements with certain countries seen as a priority. EUROPE takes stock.
In the view of the Commission, the priority of priorities has always been to bring the 2000 or so existing bilateral aviation agreements into line with Community legislation. At the time of writing, 37 third countries have agreed to amend their agreement or agreements concluded with various Member States of the EU, bringing in clause types reflecting Community competency, for example the Community's designation clause, in line with regulation 847/2007: Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbados, the Dutch West Indies, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus, Belize, Brunei, Cambodia, Cap Vert, North Korea, Costa Rica, Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Fiji, Iran, Macao, Madagascar, Mozambique, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Panama, Peru, Qatar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Dominican Republic, Senegal, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkmenistan and Zambia. 22 other third countries decided instead to conclude a cross-cutting Community agreement with the Commission, including the bilateral agreements in question: Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Georgia, Kyrgystan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Moldova, New Zealand, Paraguay, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore, Ukraine and Uruguay. A total of 385 bilateral aviation agreements have, therefore, already been brought into line with Community law.
1500 agreements, however, have not. The Commission and the Member States have drawn up a list of several countries on which to focus their efforts: Algeria, the Central African Republic, South Africa, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Chad, Thailand, Turkey and Zimbabwe. These countries, for the time being, seem little disposed to the idea of bringing in similar clauses to their bilateral agreements, or to conclude a cross-cutting Community agreement. The situation has been made slightly more complicated by the fact that certain countries, as previously announced, have partially regularised their situation. This is the case with Algeria, which has agreed to modify the agreements it has concluded with Portugal, France, Spain and Austria, whilst refusing, for the time being, to do the same with Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom. In order to remove any legal uncertainty arising from this situation, the Commission has authorised the implementation of existing agreements until the end of the month of December 2006, pending a solution.
In parallel to this exercise to bring existing agreements into line, the Commission has also started discussions with several neighbouring countries of the EU, to conclude global aviation agreements, going beyond the cross-cutting aviation agreements, in order to achieve a genuine joint airspace between now and 2010. The six Balkan States (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro) join Romania and Bulgaria to create a joint European airspace, integrating them into the internal aviation market of the EU. This will involve their adopting the whole of the Community acquis as it relates to aviation matters into the national legislation of these countries. The text of the agreement, which was approved by all partners in December 2005, will be signed in Salzburg on 5 May. Once it has entered into force, the agreement will have several consequences, such as the availability of new routes, some of which will leave from regional airports, which will lead to the diversification of services on offer and a reduction in prices, and security levels for airlines from these countries equal to those of European air carriers. The citizens of the Balkans will also see their rights reinforced, as they will benefit, amongst other things, from guaranteed protection under the regulation on refused boarding, the cancellation of flights or delays, which has been in force since 17 February 2005.
The Council and the European Parliament, furthermore, are soon to approve the text on which the Commission and the Moroccan government have already agreed, in December 2005, to conclude a Euro-Mediterranean aviation agreement. This agreement does not entirely follow the same logic as the previous one, as Morocco has no perspective to join the EU, but it will represent the clearest example of regulatory convergence possible between the EU and a third country, whilst providing for gradual market access, depending on progress made. Morocco will include a large proportion of the Community acquis as it relates to aviation matters in its national legislation, excepting provisions on the licence for air carriers which state that European airlines must be majority-held by European capital and controlled by Europeans. Increased investments may, however, be envisaged. Morocco will also take up the principal Community provisions on competition into its legislation, but will not be subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, unlike the Balkan States. Lastly, the agreement will include provisions on safety, but Morocco will not immediately have access to confidential information on this subject. Initially, once the agreement has been signed, any Community air carrier will be able to fly to Morocco from any European airport, and vice versa. Later on, once Morocco has fully implemented the Community acquis provided for by the agreement, cabotage will be authorised, which will allow a Moroccan carrier to carry out flights between two European cities situated in two different Member States. Safeguard measures will, moreover, be provided, in order to allow the EU to withdraw certain rights in case of non-respect of the Community acquis.
Ukraine is set to be the first country on the eastern flank of the EU to negotiate a similar agreement, but the Commission, which already signed a cross-cutting aviation agreement with Ukraine in December 2005, has not yet obtained a negotiation mandate; discussions for this are soon to be launched within the Council. The Commission has also tabled a mandate request to negotiate the conclusion of a global aviation agreement with Russia, but a solution to the issue of flying over Siberia (for which Russia imposes the payment of exorbitant tax) is a precondition to any agreement with Moscow. Furthermore, Russia is still refusing to modify, or to include in a cross-cutting agreement, the bilateral aviation agreements it has concluded with Austria, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.
There then follows a list of countries with which the EU hopes to conclude less integrated aviation agreements than the previous ones, and not until it has analysed, on a case-by-case basis, the potential economic benefits of such agreements. Firstly, the United States, with which country negotiations have finished, but the agreement is still pending a change in American legislation on the ownership and control of American airlines. China, for which the Commission has put a mandate request forward to the Council, and with which the objective is a gradual liberalisation of the markets, depending on progress made in terms of regulatory convergence, and also the solution to various problems, such as the transparency of financial relations between the Chinese government and Chinese airlines, the system to allocate slots and the transparency of fuel prices in China. China, like Russia, is still refusing to modify, or to include in any cross-cutting agreement, the bilateral agreements already concluded with Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding, the Commission hopes to finalise the conclusion of a cross-cutting aviation agreement with China by this summer, in order to put an end to this situation.
India is also on the Commission's programme with, initially, the ambition to conclude a cross-cutting agreement to include the bilateral aviation agreements concluded with Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The Commission hopes that this will be finalised by this summer. It has also presented the Council with a mandate request to negotiate a global aviation agreement with India. An aviation Summit between the EU and India is planned for the autumn. Lastly, once the Commission has obtained the Council's green light, it will open negotiations with Australia, New Zealand and Chile, countries which have made much progress in terms of the regulatory framework and market liberalisation, and with which the aviation agreement which the EU hopes to conclude may go beyond the one it is to conclude with the United States.