Fresh round of 'open skies' talks

EU and US negotiators will on Monday attempt to push forward with talks on an 'open skies' transatlantic air space pact.

Both sides have been working towards reaching a deal that would open up decades-old regulations and liberalise the global airline industry.

At the fourth round of talks in Brussels EU negotiators are expected to press for more concessions from Washington and the talks are set to be lively.

In February both sides concluded a third round of discussions where the US put forward an initial agreement for increasing ownership limits for European companies in US carriers from 25 per cent to 49 per cent, in line with European laws.

But EU national governments decided that the 'unacceptable' deal offered by the US fell far short of what the European Commission hopes to achieve in terms of a fully Open Aviation Area.

The Irish presidency said an initial agreement before the end of the year would only be possible if there were "tangible improvements to the proposals as a whole", and sent the European Commission back to the negotiating table.

The proposal put forward by Washington did not include "cabotage" rights, which would allow European airlines to fly between cities in the US.

At the moment airlines are allowed to fly directly between Europe and the US only, and scrapping this restriction is one of Brussels' main aims in the negotiations.

Talks over liberalising the EU-US air market began after Europe's highest court in Luxembourg ruled that the bi-lateral agreements agreed between some individual member states and the US broke EU law.

Under a so-called "single skies" agreement, any EU or US airline could fly to any point on either side of the Atlantic with the freedom to provide services relating to traffic rights and routes, slots and fares, standards of safety and aviation security.

The most sensitive areas of current negotiations include ownership questions and opening up US internal routes to EU carriers, and night flights.

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