Brussels, 06/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Apart from the British, who fear too great an opening of Heathrow Airport, the European Cockpit Association (ECA) has also expressed its reservations about the draft agreement on the opening of the civil aviation market, concluded between the United States and the EU on 2 March. In a press release published on Monday 5 March, the ECA says it is concerned that the draft “open Skies” agreement grants further access to the EU internal market for US airlines, without achieving meaningful access for EU carriers to the US continental market.
The problem, says ECA Secretary General Philip von Schöppentau is that European companies cannot fly within the United States, since cabotage is still not part of the agreement. All the protocol of agreement, does, essentially, is extend the 5th liberty (that of free flying between a European county and the United States) of the 16 countries which already have bilateral “open skies” agreements with the United States (EU15 and Romania), to the EU as a whole, something which will allow US operators to fly freely inside the EU. “We still don't have access to the US domestic market,” Mr Schöppentau said, stressing too the imbalance between ownership rights within airline companies (see EUROPE 9378). However, what is to be welcomed is that this agreement, once approved by member states, will lay the foundations of the second stage of negotiations (effective market opening, after the first stage looked at harmonisation and extending existing agreements to the EU as a whole). This second stage should result in the finalisation of the common transatlantic civil aviation area (during the preliminary negotiations in November 2005, which brought about this draft agreement, the two parties agreed that cabotage, which the Europeans wanted, could be possible and possibly negotiated in the second stage of talks). Mr Schöppentau went on to say that it was the second stage that would matter. He welcomed the fact that the agreement provided for the strengthening of links between the two stages of negotiations and that it could be suspended if the second agreement was not concluded within three years of its coming into force. (aby)