WASHINGTON - European Union transport chief Jacques Barrot kicked off a two-day visit here Monday for the latest chapter of long-running talks on an "open skies" aviation accord with the United States.
The French EU commissioner was due to meet US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta in a bid to advance stalled negotiations to create a transatlantic free market in airline routes.
Before leaving Brussels, Barrot told the French daily La Tribune that he was heading into the meetings "to evaluate the state of play with a desire to forge a transatlantic sky that is the most open and dynamic as possible."
A spokesman for Mineta, Brian Turmail, said the US government had been saddened that the EU's executive commission failed to accept its open skies offer made in June last year, since when the talks have been on hold.
"We were disappointed that the commission did not pass what we thought was a particularly good deal on the table. We'll see how these conversations will go," he told AFP.
Agreement on an accord would allow any EU airline to ply the transatlantic route of its choice, regardless of its country of origin.
At present, British Airways for example can only fly to US destinations from Britain and not from, say, Paris. But US airlines can fly to wherever they want in Europe.
The European Commission also wants Washington to scrap a foreign ownership ceiling in US airlines currently set at 25 percent.
Barrot said earlier this month that Washington should seriously consider the European demand because US carriers are facing serious financial problems which have left some of the biggest names in bankruptcy.
Past negotiations have stalled in particular over the topic of cabotage -- an airline's right to serve domestic routes in a country other than its own. The US government has balked at opening up its internal traffic to EU carriers.
The commission won the right to negotiate a Europe-US open skies deal after an EU court ruling forbade bilateral accords by the bloc's member states. Brussels is to launch similar talks with China and Russia this year.
03/21/2005 20:41 GMT