Brussels, 09/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Affairs John Byerly, leading a large American delegation, is due to meet the Director of the European Commission's DG Transport Daniel Calleja and several representatives of EU Member States and the European air industry on 10-11 January to re-launch air negotiations between the European Union and the United States.
This will be the first meeting between the two partners since Washington announced at the end of December that it was withdrawing its proposal to amend the implementation of US legislation on rules of ownership and control of American air companies (see EUROPE 9322). It was the strong opposition from the American Congress which led to this withdrawal and which brought negotiations to a standstill. The Europeans had always made signing the agreement conditional on such an amendment.
On the eve of the two-day meeting, Mr Byerly reiterated to press his country's commitment to signing the agreement which, apart from bringing considerable economic advantages, would guarantee legal “stability” to air relations between the two partners. Currently these relations are governed by bilateral air agreements, ruled in part illegal by the European Court of Justice. While Mr Byerly expressed the hope of being able to sign the agreement under the German Presidency of the EU, he seems to have arrived empty-handed. He repeated several times that, at present, there was no hope of amending the implementation of US legislation on ownership and control of companies rules. “It is not possible politically,” he said. But he did not, to the press at any rate, propose any concrete solutions to the problem. He said that the Americans needed to hear what the Europeans were proposing, putting the ball back in the European court, even though it was the opposition of the US Congress which prevented the partners from signing the agreement. (hb)