Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
European Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock has renewed his legal battle to win rights to negotiate a direct air agreement with the USA. If this is successful it could pave the way for all of the region's air bilaterals to come under a European Union (EU)banner.
Kinnock has now threatened to take legal action in the European courts against countries which have signed up national aviation agreements with the USA. He claims that they are helping to distort the EU single air market created in 1993.
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden, which already have US open skies deals in place, have been contacted by Kinnock, along with the UK, on the grounds of the "mini-deal" it struck with the USA in 1995. The Netherlands, which was the first to sign up for US open skies, is excluded because its agreement predates the single market.
The move is the latest in a long-running campaign by Kinnock to gain a mandate to negotiate an EU-wide deal with the US Department of Transportation (DoT). He won a partial victory in July 1996 when the European transport ministers agreed to empower the European Commission (EC) to open discussions, but only on a limited basis. Kinnock says that he had to abandon these talks, complaining that the national deals had weakened the EC's hand in Washington.
Despite the almost universal opposition of member states to the EC threat and the prospects of a lengthy wait before any court hearing, Anthony Fitzsimmons, partner with European law firm Ince, confirms that once a single market is created, there is a precedent for the EC to argue exclusive competence over third party agreements. If the principle is established over transatlantic talks, he believes that other deals would eventually be covered. "It looks as though America is simply the big issue. Once this principle is established, the EU will become a single aviation bloc," says Fitzsimmons.
Source: Flight International
