EU-Asean aviation summit proposes ‘open skies' agreement

EU-Asean aviation summit proposes ‘open skies' agreement

The European Commission (EC) and Asean have proposed to take aviation cooperation to a new level by negotiating a comprehensive air transport agreement between the two organisations.

This was stipulated in a Joint Declaration adopted at the end of a successful two-day EU-Asean aviation summit in Singapore on Wednesday.

The summit brought together some 300 political and business leaders including a number of EU and Asean Transport Ministers.

The summit discussed the rich opportunities in the European Union (EU) and Asean aviation markets and the benefits which both the EU and Asean stand to achieve from greater market access and integration in air services and the aviation industry, cooperation to enhance the efficiency of air traffic management and harmonisation of safety and security standards, amongst others, according to the EC press release.

In particular, the summit noted these and more potential benefits that the people and companies of both regions could enjoy from a comprehensive air transport agreement between the EU and Asean.

“If Europe works together with Asean to the fullest extent, we can extend the proven benefits of our respective single aviation markets to a much larger inter-regional one. The summit has created much new momentum for closer cooperation and made a convincing case for embarking on what could be a first aviation agreement in the world between two important blocs of countries like the EU and ASEAN,” said Commissioner Vice-President in charge of Transport, Siim Kallas.

The current Chairman of the Asean Transport Ministers Mr Sommad Pholsena, who is Minister of Public Works and Transport of Laos said “While Asean and the EU already have much in common in aviation, including their commitment to establishing single aviation markets in their respective regions, both sides stand to benefit significantly from even closer cooperation. Apart from allowing both sides to better capitalise on the opportunities in and the capabilities of each other, a bloc-to-bloc agreement would also facilitate further intra-Asean integration by allowing Asean to learn from the EU's experience in developing a single aviation market since the 1990s.”

Mr Sommad said Asean is heading towards Asean Community in 2015. The aviation sector is playing an important role in contributing to the achievement of this initiative through the establishment of the Asean single aviation market.

He said Asean recognises that a well-integrated and sustainable air transportation network is imperative for the acceleration of Asean's economic development and market integration and to enable Asean to leverage its location at the cross roads of Northeast Asia, South Asia and Oceania. The Asean single aviation market will contribute towards a more competitive and resilient region. It will bring people closer together and facilitate the efficient, safe and secure movement of goods, services and capital.

“We promptly expressed our interest to explore a possible air transport agreement with the EU. Through an Asean-EU air transport agreement, there would be benefit for ASEAN particularly in enhancing trade, investment, movement of people and tourism,” he said.

In order to be in a position to negotiate an agreement with Asean, the Commission will need a negotiating mandate from the Council of Transport Ministers of the 28 EU member states. At the EU-Asean aviation summit, Vice-President Kallas announced that he will propose to the European Commission to seek authorisation from the Council of the European Union at the earliest possible moment to start negotiations on an EU-Asean comprehensive air transport agreement. This announcement was welcomed by the Asean Transport Ministers.

Asean's first air transport agreement as a bloc was with the People's Republic of China. The agreement entered into force in 2011. Asean has also initiated discussions with Japan and the Republic of Korea with a view to concluding similar air transport agreements.

The EU has negotiated comprehensive air transport agreements with the United States, Canada, Morocco, the Western Balkan countries, Jordan, Georgia, Moldova and Israel and an agreement is expected to be signed in March 2014 with Ukraine. Negotiations are expected to be completed with Brazil in the near future and negotiations are on-going with Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Lebanon.

vientiane times