EU members told to scrap US bilateral airline deals[fr][de] 

The Commission is trying to put the EU's external airline policy in order ahead of a visit to Washington by Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot on 21-22 March.

Twelve member states were told to eliminate previous bilateral air deals with the United States which contain so-called 'nationality clauses' reserving privileged access to US air markets for their national airlines.

National agreements are in "flagrant breach of European law" a Commission statement said, since they were concluded in violation of the EU's "exclusive power […] to deal with certain areas of aviation policy with third countries". In total, all EU member states except Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovenia have concluded bilateral deals with the US.

The announcement comes only days after the Commission asked EU member states for a mandate to launch 'open skies' negotiations with Russia and China (see EurActiv, 15 March 2005).