From the
DG 7 homepage.
Brussels, 14 December 2004
The Commission defends the “Open Skies” rulings
The European Commission today decided to send reasoned opinions to four Member States following the measures it took in July to enforce the Court of Justice’s “Open Skies” rulings (IP/04/967). Despite the Court’s judgments of 5 November 2002,[1] Finland, Germany, Italy and Portugal still have discriminatory bilateral international air transport agreements. By reserving transport rights for national carriers (“nationality clauses”), these agreements hinder freedom of competition for the provision of international air transport services between the European Union and third countries to the detriment of the airline industry and users.
The Commission today decided to send reasoned opinions to four Member States for failure to comply with European law and to observe the EU's exclusive external competence with regard to certain aspects of air services agreements concluded by Member States with third countries.
Following the “Open Skies” judgments handed down by the Court on 5 November 2002, about 2000 agreements need to be brought into line with European law, in particular to abolish nationality clauses.
The Court’s judgments also mean that, given the EU's exclusive competence with regard to certain aspects of international air services, the Member States may no longer enter into international agreements themselves.
However, the Commission has found that the above four Member States have entered into new commitments with some of their partners outside the EU. By doing this, they are in breach of European law and in contravention of the internal market in aviation, in particular the principle of non-discrimination between European air carriers.