EU tekent luchtvaartovereenkomst met Chili (en)

Today the EU and Chile signed an aviation agreement. The agreement is the first of its kind and allows all European airlines to fly between Chile and any EU Member State. The agreement signed today is an important step in the broader aviation relations between the EU and Chile. The Commission wants to negotiate a broader agreement with Chile to open up the respective aviation markets and ensure regulatory convergence.

Vice-President Jacques Barrot i in charge of Transport policy said: "The agreement recognises that airlines in the EU are no longer national airlines but European airlines. This is an important step in our external aviation policy".

The agreement was signed by Vice-President Jacques Barrot, UK Transport Secretary Alistair Darling as President of the Council, and the Chilean Transport Minister Jaime Estévez in the margins of the Council of Transport Ministers in Luxembourg.

The agreement removes nationality restrictions in the bilateral air services agreements between EU Member States and Chile and therefore allows any EU airline to operate flights between any EU Member State where it is established and Chile. This agreement acknowledges the existence of the single market for air transport between the EU and Chile. It demonstrates that there is an external dimension of the single market for air transport.

The agreement with Chile is the first "horizontal" aviation agreement to be signed. Such a "horizontal" aviation agreement does not replace the bilateral agreements in place between the EU Member States and Chile but brings them in line with EU law, by removing the nationality restrictions contained in bilateral air services agreements. Nationality restrictions have been found incompatible with EU law by the European Court of Justice in the "open skies" judgements of 5 November 2002 (add reference).

Today's agreement has been the basis for launching negotiations with other countries around the world. The European Commission has successfully negotiated similar agreements with 16 other countries including Croatia, Ukraine, Morocco, Lebanon, Singapore and Australia. More such agreements with countries from all continents will follow in the coming months.

The agreement signed today is also an important first step in the broader aviation relations between the EU and Chile. Air transport is crucial for the relations between the two regions with more than 600 000 passengers carried in 2004 and increasing trade in goods. Chile is an important political and commercial partner of the EU in Latin America. Both sides are linked in an Association Agreement which entered into force in March 2005.

On 5 September, the European Commission proposed to the Council to open broader aviation negotiations with Chile (IP/05/1090). This should lead to an innovative aviation agreement that would open the markets in order to increase opportunities for EU industry and ensure regulatory convergence and co-operation in fields such as aviation safety, security, environmental protection and competition rules.