Transatlantic liberalisation talks gain full EU backing
The European Commission has won backing from all European Union member states to resume open skies talks with the USA this week, including those countries previously opposed.
Daniel Calleja, director of the EC’s air transport directorate, says formal negotiations that start this week in Brussels and are due to resume next month in Washington were approved by all countries’ transport ministries at a meeting in Luxembourg. Calleja will lead the European side.
There has been a subtle shift in the UK’s position on demanding all-or-nothing talks towards full liberalisation, with all countries now accepting a stage-by-stage approach, he says. Additionally, the USA is understood to have softened its opposition on allowing foreign ownership of airlines to grow beyond 50%. Calleja told Flight International at last week’s European Regions Airline Association annual gathering in Gothenburg, Sweden, that “there is goodwill on both sides to have a meaningful discussion towards a realistic deal”.
The EC is “cautiously optimistic” that both sides will talk about sensitive issues such as competition and safety oversight, although it is understood that the Commission has accepted that cabotage is off the agenda, so as not to jeopardise the negotiations.
US transportation secretary Norman Mineta says the USA has “agreed to resume negotiations with a view to reaching a comprehensive first-step air-services agreement”.
The talks are the first on establishing a transatlantic air accord since mid-2004. These faltered after the USA rejected EU calls to change cabotage and foreign ownership laws.
London Heathrow’s second biggest airline, BMI, says the EU and US negotiating teams “have a real opportunity to bring to an immediate end the illegal agreement” that limits the number of airlines that can fly between Heathrow and the USA.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that BMI is denied the opportunity to compete because of an agreement that has been declared illegal [by the European Court of Justice], and yet still nothing has been done to consign it to the scrapheap,” says Tim Bye, BMI deputy chief executive.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/GOTHENBURG
Source: Flight International
