Euro Common Aviation Area to be Extended to SE Europe

December 27, 2005

The European Commission and eight southeast 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) reached an agreement to create a European Common Aviation Area (ECAA).

The ECAA, according to the commission, will create a seamless and efficient European air transport network and will play a vital role in the further integration and development of Europe as a whole. The negotiations on the ECAA agreement with the southeast European partners were launched in March 2005 and took less than a year to be concluded. It is expected that the ECAA agreement will be signed under the Austrian presidency and will enter into force soon thereafter.

The ECAA will rest on two principles:

1. Aligning aviation standards and regulations in Europe on safety, security, competition policy, social policy and consumer rights. The harmonization of laws with European Union (EU) legislation illustrates the willingness of the southeast European countries to align their national aviation legislation to the complete set of EU legislation on aviation, resulting in regulatory convergence.
2. Opening up market opportunities for the aviation industry by creating a single market for aviation consisting of 35 countries and more than 500 million people. Air traffic between the EU and southeast Europe grew by 121% since 2001. This trend, said the commission, will be accelerated through full integration in a common air transport market. Forecasts for aircraft movements in the region predict an average annual growth rate of more than 6% per annum between 2005 and 2011, said the commission. As tourism is a growth area in the coastal regions in southeast Europe with potentially 414 airports in the region, there is an opportunity for further growth.

"This is a major agreement which will put impetus on the political and economic integration of Europe, for which air transport plays a key role," said Vice-President Jacques Barrot. "The creation of the European Common Aviation Area will open up market opportunities for the aviation industry and give people better travel options."

Source: European Commission.