EU law on air service gets Govt in tizzy

New Delhi: A new European Union (EU) law that allows for the sharing of available air service agreements among its member states has the Indian government in a tizzy.
The EU law allows member states to make use of unutilised air traffic routes under bilateral agreements. In other words, if India has a bilateral agreement with Germany to allow 10 flights into the country, and Germany utilises only five; the remaining five can be used by any other EU country.
The proposal under the new law has been presented to the Indian government, which is frankly uncomfortable with it. Government sources believe it will be an unequal contract with no special benefits to India. In other words, India will appear to be conceding far more than it gets.
The government has also issued an inter-ministerial note on the issue. While the proposed agreement will improve the overall utilisation of traffic rights by the EU as a whole, the EU has not offered any reciprocal benefits to India, the note states.
03/11/06 Nandini R Iyer/Hindustan Times

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