Commission demands termination of illegal agreements struck by EU states with USA
The European Commission is preparing to penalise those European Union member states whose bilateral aviation agreements with the USA were ruled illegal in November 2002 by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The EC has told all member states that any aviation treaties struck with the USA must be brought in line with the ECJ ruling or scrapped. Talks between the EU and the USA broke down last month, tempting some states to sign interim national deals.
EC transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio says: "It is over one and a half years since the European Court of Justice ruled that the discrimination between EU airlines embodied in the member states' bilateral agreements with the USA is contrary to EU law, yet that discrimination still remains in place." She adds that all agreements should be harmonised with EU objectives, to make Europe's centralised negotiations with the USA easier.
The Commission met on 20 July to discuss action, and de Palacio says it is to issue "a letter of formal notice under Article 228 of the Treaty against eight member states - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden and the UK", requiring them to "start procedures to terminate" or to renegotiate the illegal part of their bilateral aviation treaties with the USA.
In addition, says de Palacio, the EC has decided "to initiate new proceedings" against France, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands regarding their Open Skies treaties with the USA. The main issue ruled illegal by the ECJ was national carrier exclusivity - the exclusion in the individual treaties of other community carriers' rights to operate from any EU state to the USA.
Meanwhile, talks aimed at agreeing a liberal aviation pact between the EU as a whole and the USA broke down on 11 July when Europe's Council of Transport Ministers rejected the interim agreement presented to them by the EC. Negotiations, which to that point had been considered trouble-free, are now expected to resume with "informal contacts" between the two sides in September. US deputy assistant for transportation affairs John Byerly says that some European ministers appeared to be concerned that the EU would "lose its leverage" in negotiations intended to lead to a Transatlantic Common Aviation Area.
Europe insists this should include each side granting access to the other's domestic markets. The USA, says Byerly, was prepared to accept the proposal of an Open Skies agreement between the EU and the USA, and had agreed to eliminate any clauses ruled illegal under European law, but not to concede cabotage.
The EC says that the stumbling blocks are to do with cabotage.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Source: Flight International
