Transportraad akkoord met open luchtruim (en)

EU Transport Council in Brussels agrees on Open Skies

The Council of EU Transport Ministers, chaired by the German EU Council President, Wolfgang Tiefensee, today reached agreement in Brussels on Open Skies. "The EU-US air services agreement is, in many points, a major step towards a new transatlantic partnership. Air services between the EU and the USA have been placed on a modern and reliable set of regulations, which involves benefits for all European carriers and consumers. The agreement as a whole will enter into force on 30 March 2008. Europe would have liked an agreement that went even further. Two things are crucial for us: first, we have legal certainty, and second, the door is open for further negotiations on an opening-up of the market in the USA", said Mr Tiefensee in Brussels today.

The agreement on the liberalization of transatlantic air services, which was initialled by the EU and the United States at the beginning of March 2007, is designed to bring together the two leading aviation markets in the world. It is the outcome of several years of intensive negotiations between the EU and the United States. In February, Tiefensee and the EU Transport Commissioner, Jacques Barrot, travelled to the USA together to get the stalled negotiations moving again.

"In the future, European airlines will be able to fly from any European airport to any destination in the USA. Moreover, they will be able to provide services not only from and in EU Member States, but also from and in states belonging to the European Common Aviation Area, which includes the countries of the Balkans plus Norway and Iceland", stated Mr Tiefensee. In addition to the lifting of restrictions on routes and fares, there is now explicit clarification of new possibilities for marketing air services using franchising and branding. The agreement also embodies a joint understanding on the exemption of the alliances from anti-trust rules. "European airlines may now, for the first time, participate in the so-called "Fly America" programme and carry US government officials - with the exception of the Department of Defense - and operate certain cargo flights."

It was not possible to achieve an improvement, called for by Europe, in the ownership of control possibilities for foreign airlines in the USA. "Under US law, foreign airlines may still only invest in American airlines to a limited extent, and may not exercise any control. The maximum share of voting capital allowed is 25 percent", regretted the Council President. Nevertheless, he hailed the agreement as the first and decisive phase in the realization of a greater vision, the "Open Aviation Area".

The purpose of this Open Aviation Area is to create equal opportunities for market access by carriers and for ownership and control of these carriers. It is designed to create an open and fully liberalized transatlantic market and with it, de facto, a free trade zone in the air transport sector. Such an Open Aviation Area would have significance beyond the transatlantic area and could serve as a model for overcoming the traditional system of bilateral, frequently restrictive air services agreements. The Minister said that the EU would continue to pursue this objective. There would be further negotiations with the US side before the end of the year, announced the German Council President.