16/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - “We must normalise the industry. … Airlines should be able to conduct normal business activities,” said Zoltan Kazatsay, Deputy Director of DG TREN, on Thursday 15 May at the launch of negotiations for the second stage of the air agreement between the EU and the United States (“Open Skies”). “We cannot allow ourselves to continue to regulate a global industry in a way that involves so many governments taking so many different and divergent approaches to regulation,” he stated, adding: “Our interests lie not in developing juxtaposing systems on both sides of the Atlantic, but in creating the foundation for ever closer cooperation in a common aviation area”. Addressing the European and US delegations, Kazatsay said that the “Open Skies” project was “not a request for the United States to join the European Union, but rather the aim of establishing a more efficient transatlantic market, based on common standards”. (A.By.)