From EU Referendum
today
One of the most interesting moments of the Dominic Raab (aka midair bacon) interview with Andrew Marr
yesterday was the line of questioning on the EU-US open skies agreement.
Marr specifically put to the Brexit secretary that: "with no deal we fall out of that", to which Raab said quite simply, "Yes". As a follow-up, Marr asked: "That does mean that the planes can’t carry on flying in at the moment doesn’t it?", to which Raab responded: "I think we would resolve that issue".
There we have it in blunt terms. Yes, a "no deal" Brexit would mean that UK airlines would lose their access to US skies. And while Raab blandly assures us that "we would resolve that issue", can we really be certain that President Trump would give us the access we want, immediately, and without asking for significant concessions elsewhere?
But had Marr been on the ball (something he's never been), he might also have asked about the US-EU bilateral agreement on safety in civil aviation – the so-called
BASA. Even if the open skies agreement could be resolved, this is a far more complex issue, where there is no obvious or simple resolution.
And then, rather than confine his questioning to just the EU-US agreement, why didn't he ask about Varadkar's comments about the Single European Sky and the loss of access rights to the airspace of EU Member States?
As regards the aviation issue,
Dominic Grieve has certainly "got it", arguing that "It wouldn't be possible, for example, for someone to fly to Rome because the overflying rights over the other countries of the EU are regulated by EU law".
References: EU-US Open Skies Agreement
here. European Common Aviation Area
here. Single European Sky
here.