CELEX: 51984PC0072(01)
Language: en
Date: 1984-03-15
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION EEC ON BILATERAL AGREEMENTS, ARRANGEMENTS AND MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN MEMBER STATES RELATING TO AIR TRANSPORT

9. 7. 84                          Official Journal of the European Communities                            NoC 182/1
                                                         II
                                                 (Preparatory Acts)
                                            COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Decision on bilateral agreements, arrangements and memoranda
                         of understanding between Member States relating to air transport
                                                 COM(84) 72 final
                          (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 20 March 1984)
                                                   (84/C 182/01)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                  share of their airlines has fallen below a given
COMMUNITIES,                                                 percentage;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro-
pean Economic Community, and in particular                   Whereas Member States, after consulting the
Article 84 (2) thereof,                                      Commission, should modify the provisions of their
                                                             bilateral arrangements which are contrary to this
                                                             Decision,
Having regard to the proposal submitted by the
Commission,
                                                             HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Having regard to the opinion of the European
Parliament,
                                                                                     Article 1
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                            Member States shall not for scheduled air transport:
                                                             (a) require, in respect of any route between itself
                                                                  and another Member State, an airline to enter
Whereas, in order to introduce sufficient flexibility             into any agreement with another airline provid-
and competition into the air transport system in the              ing services on that route relating to:
Community and to ensure a degree of pressure on
airlines to control costs, increase productivity and              — capacity sharing, including provisions as to
provide efficient and attractively-priced services to                 the share of the traffic to be carried,
the consumer, airlines registered in Member States
 should be free from any State obligation to enter
                                                                  — revenue sharing;
into capacity- and revenue-sharing agreements
between each other;                                          (b) refuse capacity increases and/or impose capa-
                                                                  city restrictions on airlines designated by
                                                                  another Member State for services on routes
 Whereas, to enable efficient and enterprising air-
                                                                  between itself and that other Member State,
 lines to benefit, Member States should not normally
refuse capacity increases and/or reductions of the
 airlines designated by other Member States;
                                                             unless the scheduled traffic share of the airline(s) it
                                                             has designated for the operation of the routes
 Whereas, in order to reasonably safeguard the job           between itself and that other Member State has,
 prospects of those employed in the industry, Mem-           during the previous six months, been less than 25 %
 ber States should be able to intervene if the traffic       of the total scheduled traffic carried by the airlines
 ---pagebreak--- NoC 182/2                           Official Journal of the European Communities                               9. 7. 84
designated by itself and that other Member State for           this end, Member States shall provide the Commis-
those routes.                                                  sion with all relevant information and in particular
                                                               shall, once a year, send to the Commission a list of
                                                               cases where they have imposed capacity reductions
                                                               or refused capacity increases as referred to in
                          Article 2                            Article 1 above.
The total scheduled traffic between the two Member
States shall for the purpose of this Decision not
include direct transit and transfer traffic or traffic
resulting from the application of Council Directive                                    Article 4
83/416/EEC of 25 July 1983 concerning the author-
ization of scheduled inter-regional air services for
                                                               After consulting the Commission, Member States
the transport of passengers, mail and cargo between
                                                               shall, before ..., make the necessary adaptations to
Member States (').
                                                               all bilateral agreements, arrangements and memo-
                                                               randa of understanding with other Member States,
                                                               which contain provisions contrary to this Decision.
                          Article 3
The Commission shall make a report, every three
years, on the implementation of this Decision. To
                                                                                      Article 5
(') OJNoL237, 26. 8. 1983, p. 19.                             This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
              Amendments to the proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the procedure for the
                      rules on competition applying to undertakings in the air transport sector (')
                                                   COM(84) 72 final
              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council pursuant to Article 149 (2) of the EEC
                                               Treaty on 20 March 1984)
                                                     (84/C 182/02)
1. The sixth recital is hereby amended to read as                   by the parties to the agreements may operate
     follows:                                                       routes between the two territories;
                                                                    Whereas practices which may affect competition
    'Whereas, to remedy this situation, implement-                 relating to international air transport between
    ing rules are needed which are analogous to the                 Member States may have a substantial effect on
    regulations covering other forms of transport                   trade between Member States; whereas it is
    and other sectors of the economy;'.                             desirable therefore that the rules laid down in
                                                                    this Regulation for the application of Articles 85
2.    New seventh and eight recitals are added:                     and 86 of the EEC Treaty apply, as a first stage,
                                                                    to international air transport within the com-
      'Whereas the air transport industry is character-             mon market;'.
      ized by special features which are peculiar to
      this sector; whereas, furthermore, international         3.   Article 1 (2) is hereby amended to read as
      air transport is regulated by a network of bilat-             follows:
      eral agreements between States which define                   '2. It shall apply only to international air
      the conditions under which airlines designated                transport between Community airports.'
(') OJ NoC 317, 3. 12. 1982, p. 3.