EU Commission seeks control over airline pacts BRUSSELS (Reuters) =97 The European Commission is set to make a fresh grab= =20 for control over international aviation pacts on Wednesday, asking for=20 powers to negotiate all such deals on behalf of EU member states. According= =20 to documents obtained by Reuters, the European Union's executive arm will=20 tell the bloc's 15 member states they must drop the idea of "national" air= =20 carriers and give all EU airlines equal rights to fly to and from their=20 airports. "We identify our main priority to be to obtain the recognition of= =20 'Community carriers' by third countries and thereby to unblock=20 consolidation within the (EU) airline industry by removing existing=20 provisions that discriminate on the basis of nationality," an internal=20 Commission memo said. At their weekly meeting on Wednesday, the top EU=20 officials are likely formally to issue both a request to renegotiate=20 aviation pacts on behalf of EU states =97 a task that would take years =97= and=20 rules on how governments should act in the interim. Governments have so far= =20 been reluctant to relinquish the right to negotiate with non-EU countries,= =20 but a landmark ruling in the European Court of Justice last November found= =20 parts of existing bilateral deals with the United States broke EU law.=20 Since then, the Commission has told EU governments to give up those=20 agreements and allow it to renegotiate with Washington a single pact=20 covering the entire EU, a proposal that is still being considered by=20 national governments. In its latest move, the Commission goes further,=20 saying it should eventually renegotiate all existing aviation pacts, so=20 they no longer discriminate between EU carriers on the grounds of=20 nationality and, instead, recognise EU-owned carriers. CONSOLIDATION BLOCK The Commission says the current system of bilateral pacts is preventing the= =20 creation of a true single European aviation market and stopping much needed= =20 consolidation. Aviation pacts' "nationality clauses" complicated merger=20 plans between British Airways and KLM in 1998. The talks were eventually=20 aborted amid uncertainty over whether the new carrier could keep its flying= =20 rights in both countries. During the several years it would take years to=20 renegotiate the hundreds of pacts EU states have, to remedy the nationality= =20 issue, the Commission wants EU governments to promise not to make any more= =20 restrictive deals. They would have to inform Brussels when they intend to negotiate flying=20 rights with foreign governments, and submit the results so it can check=20 they comply with EU law. Any new bilateral deals should not favour certain= =20 airlines over other EU carriers that may want to operate on the routes=20 concerned, the Commission's draft proposal says. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.dbombo.net/muddyangels/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************