Julian Moxon/PARIS
TENSIONS BETWEEN the European Union and the USA are expected to be further inflamed as the US Government attempts to conclude simultaneous open-skies agreements with several European countries, while Brussels threatens legal proceedings against the countries involved.
European Commission (EC) transport minister Neil Kinnock says that the US action "...could put in peril the whole of European deregulation", and has sent letters to the countries concerned requesting that they do not sign individual open-skies deals. Dispatch of the letters begins a legal procedure, which could end with the countries being taken to the European Court of Justice at Luxembourg, although Kinnock's office says that court action would only be taken as "a very last resort".
Kinnock's latest move follows the EC's agreement in late April on a draft mandate under which it would exercise its competence under the Treaty of Rome to negotiate open-skies deals for all EC countries. The agreement was rushed through following preliminary deals between the USA and Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden. The Netherlands already operates such a deal.
Kinnock says that it is a "comprehensive, balanced alternative" to what he calls an "America-first" policy, which aims "...to divide Europe in setting the ground rules for civil-aviation relations".
Brussels-based law firm Norton Rose says: "The legal situation under Article 84 of the Treaty is clear. Under the internal market, there is a risk that member states will negotiate agreements that are inconsistent with a system designed to benefit the whole of Europe. The Community was therefore given competence to negotiate such agreements on behalf of its member states".
The draft mandate faces a major hurdle, however, when it is submitted to the European Council of Transport Ministers on 19 July, at which point individual countries are expected to object to it.
The best hope is that the EC will be given what is called a "mixed competence" to negotiate open-skies agreements, which will include existing individual agreements accepted within the wider framework of a pan-European deal.
Source: Flight International
