=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2007/03/02/financial/= f081640S17.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 2, 2007 (AP) Breakthrough for EU-U.S. Air Travel (03-02) 08:16 PST BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- EU and U.S. negotiators made "decisive progress" in talks aimed at lifti= ng restrictions on what trans-Atlantic routes airlines can offer, the European Union said Friday. "I am delighted with the progress and I can now put a proposal to the council of ministers," said EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot. Barrot will present the 27 EU nations with the draft agreement from negotiations on March 22. Barrot and German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, held talks in Washington last month after the U.S. government scrapped an earlier draft agreement that would have allowed more control of U.S. airlines by foreign investors. Barrot announced a breakthrough Friday. "During this week's negotiations , EU and U.S. negotiators made decisive progress for an open skies agreement," Barrot said in a statement. Air travel in Europe and the United States accounts for 60 percent of global air traffic, and the ambitious EU-U.S. deal could allow more airlines to fly the lucrative trans-Atlantic routes, possibly offering cheaper tickets. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said in December that the department bowed to job and security fears when it withdrew a proposal to lift a 25 percent ceiling on foreign ownership of U.S. carriers. That effectively rejected Europe's principal demand: to open the U.S. aviation sector to foreigners. That had been viewed as a precursor to a pact that would allow airlines from both regions to fly where they wanted and charge what they wanted across the Atlantic. --------------------------= -------------------------------------------- Copyright 2007 AP