IP/08/1917

Brussels, 9 December 2008

EU signs aviation agreement with Armenia

The European Union and the Republic of Armenia today signed an aviation agreement which will allow all European airlines to fly between Armenia and any EU Member State. After three years of negotiation, the agreement was signed by Commissioner Ms Benita Ferrero Waldner, responsible for external relations, Mr Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Secretary of State for European Affairs for the French Presidency, and Mr Eduard Nalbandyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia in the framework of the EU-Armenia Cooperation Council .

“The agreement recognises that airlines in the EU are not any longer national airlines, and all of them will thus have non-discriminatory access to the air transport market between the EU and Armenia. This is an important step in our external aviation policy and a further building block in our policy towards neighbouring countries,” said Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani responsible for transport.

Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner added: "Facilitating transport links between the European Union and Armenia is a crucial and very visible component in our policy to enhance people-to-people contacts and improve business links between the EU and Armenia. Thus this agreement fits into the logic of our ambitious recent proposal for an Eastern Partnership and contributes to promoting Armenia's rapprochement to the European Union."

Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner added: "Facilitating transport links between the European Union and Armenia is a crucial and very visible component in our policy to enhance people-to-people contacts and improve business links between the EU and Armenia. Thus this agreement fits into the logic of our ambitious recent proposal for an Eastern Partnership and contributes to promoting Armenia's rapprochement to the European Union."Most importantly, the agreement allows any EU airline to operate flights between any EU Member State where it is established and Armenia. It acknowledges the existence of the single market for air transport between the EU and Armenia and demonstrates the external dimension of this market.

The EU has negotiated 35 such horizontal agreements with partner countries and thereby brought more than 600 bilateral air services agreements in compliance with Community law.
Passenger numbers between the EU and Armenia increased from almost 166,000 in 2006 to 204,000 in 2007 the main markets being France, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. The agreement will contribute to the further development of EU-Armenia aviation relations.