Activites

• 2004/04/30 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Regulation 2004/847
  • OJ L 195 02.06.2004, p. 0003-0006
• 2004/04/30 Final act signed
• 2004/04/29 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2004/04/14 Act approved by Council, 2nd reading
• 2004/03/30 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T5-0195/2004 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Ingo SCHMITT (EPP-ED, D) approving the Council's common position subject to a drafting amendment. Parliament took the view that, when negotiating agreements on an open aviation area, it should be ensured that direct and indirect subsidies to air carriers are made inadmissible, as the market would otherwise be distorted to the detriment of Member State or Community carriers, and that bilateral air service agreements should not be replaced by Community agreements unless the third country concerned has a liberalised market or a Community agreement with a third country would result in added value for the Member States.�

• 2004/03/17 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A5-0179/2004
• 2004/01/15 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #2551
• 2003/12/05 Council Meeting
  • 13732/1/2003 summary

    In its common position, the Council maintained the basic structure of the Commission's proposal, in particular notification of an intention to negotiate in Article 1 and a system for approving the outcome of negotiations in Article 4, although significant changes were made to refine and reinforce the legal framework. These changes aim at improving the workability of the Commission's proposal by making the conditions under which Member States are authorised to negotiate and conclude agreements that touch on matters of Community competence more specific. Three changes should be particularly stressed in this regard: - the scope of the draft Regulation was broadened so as to also include cases where Member States negotiate with a third country with which the Commission is also negotiating on behalf of the Community. Through this extension of scope, the Council was able to secure acceptance of the notion of parallel negotiations at Community and national level. This, inter alia, permits routine updating of existing bilateral agreements pending the outcome of Community level negotiations; - a fast track procedure, whereby Member States are authorised automatically to conclude agreements on behalf of the Community if they include certain standard clauses, has been introduced; - the principle that Member States may provisionally apply agreements pending the outcome of Community verification procedures has been introduced. Under the new Article 4, the Commission retains powers to block agreements where negotiations have not resulted in the inclusion of standard Community clauses (and the agreements might consequently infringe Community law), or in cases where the Commission is itself actively negotiating with the third country concerned on the basis of a mandate granted by the Council. In both situations the Commission decides together with an advisory committee of Member States. Several other less fundamental, but nevertheless significant, changes to the Commission's proposal have been introduced. These include the following: - the obligation on Member States in Article 1 to notify each other regarding forthcoming negotiations has been removed. Now the Commission is the central repository of such notifications which it must make available to other Member States. This is a less bureaucratic and more streamlined system; - the text of Article 2 has been broadened to require equal treatment of all interested parties (not only air carriers) as regards their association with negotiations taking place; - the intention behind Article 3, the prohibition of more restrictive arrangements, has been clarified; - a timescale for publication of procedures has been added in Article 6. (Previously there was a deadline only for publication of changes, but not of the procedures themselves); - regarding confidentiality (Article 8, formerly Article 7), the intention underlying the Commission's proposal - that confidentiality restrictions could prevent notifications being passed on to other Member States - has been retained but clarified further; - the relevant standard provisions regarding the airport of Gibraltar have been introduced. Out of the 17 amendments adopted by the European Parliament, theCouncil fully incorporated three of them into its common position and four of them in part or in principle. These amendments mainly correspond to those accepted in a similar fashion by the Commission. In light of these amendments, the common position - aims to strengthening the legal framework set out by this draft regulation. It further specifies both the type of agreements or related documents which are covered by this draft regulation , and the Member States'obligations when Community negotiations are actively underway; - clarifies the obligation on Member States to notify the Commission of their planned negotiations, and thus integrates this Parliament amendment in principle. Only the Commission must be notified by a Member State which intends to enter into negotiations, the other Member States having the possibility to request copy of this notification to the Commission. A special procedure is also set out in case of exceptional circumstances; - seeks to clarify that any agreement which would reduce the number of Community carriers which may, in accordance with existing arrangements, be designated to provide air services between the territory of a Member State and a third country, is prohibited.�

• #2531
• 2003/10/09 Council Meeting
• 2003/09/02 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0356/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the resolution drafted by Ingo SCHMITT (EPP-ED, Germany) and made some amendments to the proposal. (Please see the summary of 08/07/03.)�

• 2003/07/08 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0263/2003
• #2515
• 2003/06/05 Council Meeting
  • 2515
• #2499
• 2003/03/27 Council Meeting
  • 2499
• 2003/03/10 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2003/02/26 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2003)0094 summary

    PURPOSE : to present a proposal for a regulation on the negotiation of air service agreements between the Member States and third countries. CONTENT: this document is a response to the judgements of the Court of Justice in the "open skies" cases of 05/11/02. The Court's judgements will have immediate legal effects: - several matters that are often covered by the provisions of these agreements now fall within the exclusive external competence of the Community; - the nationality clauses contained in nearly all the agreements constitute discrimination on the grounds of nationality contrary to the provisions of f Article 43 of the EC Treaty. Changes must be made to the current regime in order to bring existing relations with third countries into line with the Court's rulings of 05/11/03. As a first step, the Council has been asked to authorise the Commission to open Community negotiations with the United States on the creation of an Open Aviation Area. In addition, the following points are made: 1) It is of the utmost importance to allow all Community carriers to benefit from market access rights under the existing bilateral agreements, by agreeing with third countries on the designation of Community carriers. The Commission asks the Council to authorise Community negotiations on the designation of Community carriers on international routes to and from third countries and on matters within exclusive Community competence. 2) Within the Community, it is essential to ensure that Community airlines, Member States governments and the Community institutions are properly informed of all planned negotiations. This will permit the Commission and other Member States to identify matters of common interest and propose coordination where necessary. For airlines, greater transparency will permit them to take real advantage of their rights under the Treaty, which exist for the moment largely on paper. 3) It will not be possible to move immediately towards open air transport agreements with all bilateral partners and traffic rights from third countries to and form Member States are likely to remain limited in some cases. Therefore, it will be important to agree upon common principles for the allocation of traffic rights that will ensure that all interested Community carriers have a fair and equal chance of obtaining market access. The Commission submits a draft regulation, which will provide a framework for ensuring that information about negotiations and agreements in this complex area flows freely within the Community and establishes clear rules for the implementation of agreements in order to guarantee Community carriers fair and equal opportunities. The proposal contains the following: - Member States are required to inform the Commission of all planned negotiations. The Commission will examine all such notifications with a view to both verifying the compatibility of the proposed approach with Community law and identifying issues of broader Community interest that might be usefully discussed with other Member States or coordinated more closely at Community level; - Member States are required to notify the Commission of the outcome of then negotiation in order to permit it to verify the compliance of the outcome with Community law and to allow it to monitor the non-discriminatory implementation of the agreementprovisions, in particular in the area of traffic rights. - Member States are obliged to inform and accommodate all Community carriers with an establishment in their territory in a non-discriminatory manner. This involves requesting expressions of interest from all Community carriers in advance of opening negotiations with third countries, in order to ensure that their interests can be taken into account in the negotiations and so that they may be present at relevant discussions. Pending the opening of the negotiations envisaged above and the entry into force of the proposed regulation, legal uncertainty must be reduced. The Commission puts forwards some guidelines so that Member States can reduce the risk of conflict with their Treaty obligations: - conduct relations with third countries in accordance with Article 10 of the Treaty; - support Community initiatives; - refrain from entering into negotiations on matters of Community exclusive competence or which are the subject of Community negotiations under a specific mandate; - with regard to bilateral agreements, inform the Commission of all negotiations; - distribute any traffic rights arising from bilateral agreements in a non-discriminatory manner between Community carriers with an establishment on their territory. A list of principles and procedures are set out in an annex to this document; - in order to give practical effect to the right of establishment, Member States must use the opportunities offered by their bilateral agreements to open routes to and from third countries to all Community carriers with an establishment on their territory on a fair and equal basis.�

  • DG ['Energy and Transport'],

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2003)0094
• Debate in Council: 2499
• Debate in Council: 2515
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0263/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0356/2003
• Council position published: 13732/1/2003
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A5-0179/2004
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T5-0195/2004
• : Regulation 2004/847
• : OJ L 195 02.06.2004, p. 0003-0006

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)