Originally Posted by
ATNotts
I thought that the EU negotiated right on behalf of all EU states. From what you are saying it appears the French have an opt out, or are air traffic rights for third countries, outside the EU agreed at national level?
If they are agreed nationally, then one of more dire warning about a no deal Brexit may be overblown.
Depends on the agreement. There are a number of existing agreements between non EU and EU states that pre-date the EU asserting sole negotiating authority. If there is no agreement between the EU as a whole and the country then the old agreements remain in force. Once the EU and that country sign a new agreement it takes precedence. This is what happened when the EU-US Openskies agreement came into force. The old agreements, e.g. the US-NL open skies and Bermuda II all lapsed. If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, or with a deal that doesn't include remaining in the EU negotiated agreements then they loose the rights in those agreements. It remains to be seen if the other countries would honour the previous agreements as these technically ceased to exist when the EU agreement was made.
Note, this is totally separate from the fact that, as it stands, the UK has no international authority to oversee type design and continued airworthiness, which could be far more problematic.