Kinnock faces rebuff over air mandate

Date: 25/03/1999

By Renée Cordes

EU GOVERNMENTS are denying the European Commission the right to renegotiate a key international air agreement on their behalf.

Transport ministers are set to refuse Acting Commissioner Neil Kinnock's request for a mandate to represent member states in talks on changes to the Warsaw Convention, governing international air transport, at their meeting next Monday (29 March).

Opposition is being led by France, Germany and the UK, amid fears that the Commission would not represent their individual interests adequately. One diplomat said that Kinnock was seeking a "broad-sweeping mandate" to negotiate on behalf of governments, adding: "That is not going to happen."

The convention at the centre of the dispute limits air carriers' liability when passengers are killed or injured during travel or while embarking or disembarking, as well as for luggage damaged or lost.

Kinnock's aides argue that the EU will only be able to present a united front in the Montreal talks in May if the Commission is an active participant. "There must be coordination between member states and the Community," said one.

Without approval from the member states, the Commission would only be able to go to the talks as an observer.

Kinnock has repeatedly failed in his campaign to get a mandate from EU governments to negotiate aviation agreements on their behalf, and has launched legal proceedings against eight member states which have signed bilateral 'open skies' deals with the US.

The Acting Commissioner argues that the governments concerned are violating EU rules and distorting competition. "Only a common external policy, rooted in a fully liberalised internal market, can offer Europe's airlines the basis to develop global strategies," he said last autumn.

EU Governments are denying the Commission the right to renegotiate a key international air agreement on their behalf.