EU Seeks Greater Involvement In US Aviation

ANN has learned the US Secretary for Transportation, Mary Peters, the European Commission vice president in charge of Transport, Jacques Barrot, and German Transport Minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee met Tuesday in Washington to kick off a new round of air transport negotiations in hopes of reaching consensus on a comprehensive transatlantic agreement collectively known as the "Open Skies" treaty.

This marks the first time the principals have met since Peters shelved a proposal that would have eased restrictions on foreign ownership of US airlines last December -- something European carriers have sought for some time . The proposal had met with stiff resistance from some US legislators and airlines.

EU negotiators also hope to eliminate a rule prohibiting foreign carriers from operating point to point within the US.

Launching the new round of negotiations, Vice President Barrot said, "I know that there are some difficult issues on the table for the negotiators to solve this week. But I stress once more that the status quo is not an option and that failure is not an option. I urge both delegations to approach the discussions this week with creativity, with imagination and with determination."

Barrot added successful negotiations would yield a historic agreement the rest of the world could model.

"The cost, if we fail, is too terrible to contemplate," said Barrot. "Time is not on our side. Now is not the time to delay or to shy away from hard decisions and hard choices. We must move forward. There is a lot of hard work ahead on both sides which needs to be constructive in order to achieve a fair deal."

The shelved proposal to ease foreign ownership rules would likely have had an impact on at least one airline. Virgin America, a start up airline conceived, created and funded in part by the UK's Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic fame was denied an operating certificate early this year by the US Department of Transportation for reasons directly related to foreign ownership rules.

FMI: www.dot.gov, www.eurunion.org