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.
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