News
The Council of the European Union has finally approved the agreement on open-skies (common aviation space) with Ukraine and three other countries. This is reported by the press service of the Council of the EU.
On June 28, the EU Council gave free rein to sign four aviation agreements - with Ukraine, Armenia, Tunisia and Qatar. These agreements will open up the air transport market, providing new opportunities for both consumers and air carriers.
The decision on Ukraine, Armenia and Qatar allows the agreement to be applied on a temporary basis until the procedures necessary for entry into force are completed. The agreements are expected to be signed in the autumn of 2021. After that, each deal must be ratified by each EU member state.
"Now the Council is ready to sign four important aviation agreements that will improve access to the airline market and better communication and freedom of movement of citizens. At the same time, they will ensure the high level of security and level playing field.", Pedro Nuno Santos, President of the EU Council, said.
The European Common Aviation Area (Open-skies) is a bilateral agreement between the EU and third countries that sets common safety standards and liberalizes market relations in aviation, allowing for more efficient and safer use of airspace.
Documents:
The Council's decision to sign and temporarily apply the Common Aviation Agreement between the EU and its member states and Ukraine.
Agreement on common aviation space between the EU and its member states and Ukraine.
More details about the open-skies:
The Open-skies programme was created to lift air barriers between European countries. It means that countries that have joined the initiative have equal rights and opportunities for all air carriers.
Thanks to the "open-skies" airlines can not only serve any number of flights between different countries. They also have the opportunity to do coastwise trade, that is, domestic flights within another country. For example, this allowed the Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair to fly not only from Dublin to Berlin, but also from Krakow to Gdansk, located in Poland.
In November 2018, an article on the history of the "open-skies" issue was published on the Lowcost.ua. In particular, it says that at the end of September 2012, European Commission Vice-President Siim Callas said that the European Commission in 2015 plans to conclude agreements on a united aviation area of Ukraine and a number of neighboring countries. On November 28, 2013, the initiation (preliminary signing of the agreement) of the Agreement on the Common Aviation Space between Ukraine and the EU took place in Vilnius.
However, scheduled for June 5, 2014, the final signing of the Agreement was postponed by the European side. At the end of last year, we reported that the Agreement on "Open -skies" between Ukraine and the EU could be signed on February 11, but this did not happen. In April, we announced the approval of the updated draft decision and now the "deadline" has been postponed until the fall of 2021.
Source: UNIAN.