Ministers consider postponing open skies talks

EU transport ministers are considering calling off talks on an open skies deal with Washington until after the US presidential elections in November, officials said today.

Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio was to brief ministers from the 25 EU countries on progress in the talks, which aim to liberalise rules for US and European airlines in each other’s markets.

The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, were scheduled to decide whether to ask her to keep at it or to put the entire issue on the back burner, probably until after the presidential elections, diplomats said.

US and EU officials had originally hoped to have a complete open skies agreement ready for signing at the US-EU summit on June 26.

However both sides see no chance of completing it before then, primarily because the United States has refused to budge on one of the key EU demands: to allow European carriers to operate on US domestic routes.

US officials say such a step would be near-impossible politically, given the weak state of the American airline industry and concerns about job losses.

US officials said they remained hopeful of at least a first-phase agreement by the end of the year.

Talks on liberalising transatlantic flight travel began last year after Europe’s highest court ruled bilateral deals between Washington and individual EU countries were partly illegal because they discriminated against airlines from other EU nations.