Wed, Feb 07, 2007
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.
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