13 Aviation agreements
| (27406)
8248/06
COM(06)145
| Draft Decision on the signature and provisional application of the Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, on the one hand, and the Kingdom of Morocco, on the other hand
Draft Decision on the conclusion of the Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, on the one hand, and the Kingdom of Morocco, on the other hand
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| Legal base | Articles 80 and 300EC; consultation; QMV
|
| Department | Transport |
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 16 November 2006
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 34-xxviii (2005-06), para 4 (10 May 2006)
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| To be discussed in Council | Possibly 11-12 December 2006
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
13.1 Since 1987 a single market for air services in the Community
has been progressively established. Community legislation has
extended the scope of this single market beyond purely economic
matters to embrace the areas of safety, security, air traffic
management, social harmonisation and the environment. The Community
has the competence to conclude air services agreements with third
countries and meanwhile to require revision of bilateral air services
agreements to eliminate provisions discriminatory against other
Member States.
13.2 These draft Decisions would authorise the signature,
provisional application and conclusion of an aviation agreement
between the Community and the Member States on the one hand and
Morocco on the other.
13.3 The agreement would:
- integrate Morocco into the
Community's single aviation market;
- provide for alignment of Morocco's aviation legislation
with that of the Community in relation to safety, security, air
traffic management, economic regulation competition, environmental
standards, social harmonisation and consumer protection; and
- supersede in almost every respect bilateral air
services agreements between Member States and Morocco.
13.4 When we considered this document in May 2006
we found the proposal to endorse the agreement very largely unexceptionable.
But we asked the Government how this agreement relates, if at
all, to the multilateral air services agreement creating a European
Common Aviation Area (ECAA) covering the Member States of the
Community and other European countries[42]
and, in relation to the proposed suspension of the application
of the agreement with Morocco to Gibraltar airport:
- the practical effect of the
suspension of the agreement in relation to Gibraltar airport,
particularly whether supersession of the UK bilateral air services
agreement with Morocco would put Gibraltar in a more disadvantageous
position than at present; and
- what consultations there had been with the Gibraltar
Government on this aspect of the ongoing airport issue.
We have kept the document uncleared pending answers
to these points.[43]
The Minister's letter
13.5 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department of Transport (Gillian Merron) writes now in response.
In relation to the ECCA she says that:
- it is in part an accession-driven
agreement, preparing Western Balkans countries for their possible
eventual accession to the EU, a situation which does not apply
to Morocco;
- the ECCA extended full EU aviation legislation
to the Balkans states, unlike the agreement with Morocco which
does not incorporate all the elements of the open internal market
concept ;
- the ECCA is a multilateral agreement which will
liberalise air transport within the region, whereas the agreement
with Morocco is at this stage only a bilateral agreement covering
air services between the EU and Morocco;
- the agreement with Morocco has been drafted as
a "Euro-Mediterranean Agreement" to allow for the possibility
of other Mediterranean countries joining it at a later stage;
and
- both agreements are building blocks in a general
policy of seeking to extend the EU's "Common Aviation Area"
to its eastern and southern neighbours.
13.6 As for Gibraltar the Minister tells us the current
exclusions of Gibraltar from a range of EU legislation are to
be lifted over the next two years under a Gibraltar Airport Agreement,
which forms part of a wider agreement between the UK, Gibraltar
and Spanish Governments reached on 18 September 2006. (The Minister
draws our attention to a letter of 19 September 2006 to the Chairman
of the Foreign Affairs Committee from the Minister for Europe
(Mr Geoffrey Hoon) and that Minister's statement to the House
of 17 October 2006 describing the full agreement.)[44]
The Minister continues that it has been agreed by all three parties
not to delay signature of the agreement with Morocco while the
final details of implementing the Gibraltar Airport Agreement
are worked out. Instead a form of words, agreed with the Gibraltar
Government, is to be included in the agreement which will permit
Gibraltar's participation in the agreement and which is consistent
with the Gibraltar Airport Agreement.
Conclusion
13.7 We are grateful to the Minister for these
explanations. We have no further questions and clear the document.
42 (27378) 7596/06: see HC 34-xxvi (2005-06), para
11 (26 April 2006). Back
43
See headnote. Back
44
HC Deb, col. 48-49WS. Back
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