Monday, November 27, 2006
EU-India Agree To Strengthen Cooperation In Civil Aviation
Brussels (Belgium), 26 November 2006: At occasion of joint EU-India Aviation Summit held in New Delhi, Vice-President Jacques Barrot and India's Minister for Civil Aviation Mr. Praful Patel signed a "Joint Declaration" that will lay the foundation for closer cooperation between EU and India in a range of areas of civil aviation.
"Given the strong growth and infrastructure challenges facing India's aviation sector, I am extremely pleased with the prospects of enhancing cooperation in civil aviation with India. The scope for cooperation is huge and will benefit both India and EU industry", said Vice-President Jacques Barrot.
India is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets and is of increasing strategic importance to the EU and its industry. In his opening speech at the joint EU-India Aviation Summit, Vice-President Barrot described the common challenges faced by India and the EU in aviation and invited India to face these in partnership through closer cooperation with the EU.
In 2004, India and EU upgraded their already strong overall relationship into a strategic partnership. This strategic partnership is underpinned by an agreed Joint Action Plan in which civil aviation plays a key enabling role.
Since the adoption of the Joint Action Plan in September 2005, co-operation in area of civil aviation has been given new impetus. On this basis Vice-President Barrot and Minister Patel agreed in Delhi on two important concrete steps forward in enhancing EU-India aviation relations in the future.
As a first significant step, the two sides agreed to restore legal certainty to all the bilateral air services agreements between India and EU Member States. Therefore, it was agreed that a "horizontal agreement" will be finalized as a matter of priority. To that effect, the parties will meet in early 2007. Aim of the "horizontal agreement" will be to amend certain provisions in the bilateral agreements thereby bringing these into conformity with Community law thus restoring legal certainty to these agreements and the operators flying under them.
Secondly, building on the very successful results achieved under the 1999-2006 "EU-India Civil Aviation Co-operation Project", Messrs. Barrot and Patel agreed to prepare a Joint Action Plan that will set out the key priorities for strengthening future technical and technological co-operation. This Joint Action Plan, which will also be finalized as a matter of priority, and a new technical co-operation programme that will start in 2007 will be important instruments in taking forward the wide range of areas of mutual interest of industry, regulators and the wider public of both sides, as identified during the aviation summit.
The Joint Action Plan will identify the main priority areas for future technical cooperation which will cover aviation safety (including strengthening the cooperation with the European Air Safety Agency), security, airport infrastructure, air traffic management, environmental policy, economic regulation, training and industrial co-operation.
At EU-India Aviation Summit, Vice-President Barrot also invited India to become associated in major EU technological programmes such as GALILEO, the satellite navigation programme, and SESAR, the air traffic management project.
(Www.mediabharti.com)
"Given the strong growth and infrastructure challenges facing India's aviation sector, I am extremely pleased with the prospects of enhancing cooperation in civil aviation with India. The scope for cooperation is huge and will benefit both India and EU industry", said Vice-President Jacques Barrot.
India is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets and is of increasing strategic importance to the EU and its industry. In his opening speech at the joint EU-India Aviation Summit, Vice-President Barrot described the common challenges faced by India and the EU in aviation and invited India to face these in partnership through closer cooperation with the EU.
In 2004, India and EU upgraded their already strong overall relationship into a strategic partnership. This strategic partnership is underpinned by an agreed Joint Action Plan in which civil aviation plays a key enabling role.
Since the adoption of the Joint Action Plan in September 2005, co-operation in area of civil aviation has been given new impetus. On this basis Vice-President Barrot and Minister Patel agreed in Delhi on two important concrete steps forward in enhancing EU-India aviation relations in the future.
As a first significant step, the two sides agreed to restore legal certainty to all the bilateral air services agreements between India and EU Member States. Therefore, it was agreed that a "horizontal agreement" will be finalized as a matter of priority. To that effect, the parties will meet in early 2007. Aim of the "horizontal agreement" will be to amend certain provisions in the bilateral agreements thereby bringing these into conformity with Community law thus restoring legal certainty to these agreements and the operators flying under them.
Secondly, building on the very successful results achieved under the 1999-2006 "EU-India Civil Aviation Co-operation Project", Messrs. Barrot and Patel agreed to prepare a Joint Action Plan that will set out the key priorities for strengthening future technical and technological co-operation. This Joint Action Plan, which will also be finalized as a matter of priority, and a new technical co-operation programme that will start in 2007 will be important instruments in taking forward the wide range of areas of mutual interest of industry, regulators and the wider public of both sides, as identified during the aviation summit.
The Joint Action Plan will identify the main priority areas for future technical cooperation which will cover aviation safety (including strengthening the cooperation with the European Air Safety Agency), security, airport infrastructure, air traffic management, environmental policy, economic regulation, training and industrial co-operation.
At EU-India Aviation Summit, Vice-President Barrot also invited India to become associated in major EU technological programmes such as GALILEO, the satellite navigation programme, and SESAR, the air traffic management project.
(Www.mediabharti.com)
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