Press Release: South East Europe flying towards the EU: first steps taken for extending the Single Aviation Market

Meeting in Salzburg on 5 May 2006, the European Union and Transport Ministers of eight South-East European partners (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo) as well as of Iceland and Norway signed a political agreement to create a European Common Aviation Area (ECAA). The Agreement was to provide for new market opportunities for the European aviation industry by creating a single market for aviation consisting of 35 countries and more than 500 million people. It was to ensure high and uniform safety and security standards across Europe as well as uniformly applied competition rules and consumer rights.