The European Commission (EC) has set out its opening negotiating position as it seeks to gain the right to sign international aviation treaties on behalf of the European Union (EU).
The EC is calling for a mandate to negotiate on all issues that fall under its legal competence, and to negotiate community-wide agreements that will abolish the restrictive nationality clauses in existing bilaterals. It is also proposing a regulation that calls for member states to pass on information on bilateral negotiations to other member states and the EC. However, Brussels insiders say this is very much a first step in the negotiating process. "The EC is willing to make a deal," says one observer.
Crucially, the EC's competition authorities are calling for the right to rule on air deals covering non-EU states. At the moment, the EC has enforcement powers on intra-EU services, but not on services to third countries. The EC hopes the new regulation will be in place by May 2004. The Association of European Airlines (AEA) says it welcomes the move in principle. "It is a good development, and also an inevitable one in areas where the EC has powers to make agreements, but will only work where both sides have an open market," says Rene Fennes, AEA general manager public policy.
The AEA would like to see Brussels and the member states reach a compromise over the issue of an EC negotiating mandate as soon as possible, with an EU-US open skies deal given priority. Speaking at the recent Airline Business Network 2003 conference in Fort Lauderdale, Brattle Group economist Dorothy Robyn, who analysed the impact of open skies on behalf of the EC, predicted that the economic advantages of a deal meant that many restrictions will fall within two years. She added, however, that restrictions on foreign investment and the right of establishment would take longer to be eliminated, but that this process could be stepped up if an EU carrier stepped forward to bail out a US airline.
Elsewhere, Fennes says the AEA would like to "continue as usual" without the nationality clauses and see how other countries react. "It should be a gradual process," he says.
COLIN BAKER LONDON AND DAVID FIELD FORT LAUDERDALE
Source: Airline Business
