|
Sarkaritel.com News and Features
India-EU Flag-Off First Aviation Summit
New Delhi, November 24, 2006
The EU-India air traffic has increased significantly in recent years. Since
1990, the number of seats available on scheduled non-stop flights between the EU
and India has nearly tripled from 2.6 million to 7.4 million in 2006 (+180%).
EU is India’s largest trading partner as well as largest source of FDI. India
is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets. During the first 10
months of 2006, domestic air passenger traffic in India increased by 50%.
Building on the very successful results achieved under the 1999-2006
“EU-India Civil Aviation Co-operation Project”, a Joint Action Plan for
enhancing future technical and technological co-operation is under preparation.
Since the adoption of the Joint Action Plan in September 2005, co-operation in
the area of civil aviation has been given new impetus.
This very need to strengthen the relationship and broaden the scope of
partnership, the First EU-India Aviation Summit has been organized from 22-24
November 2006 in New Delhi jointly organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation
of India and the European Commission. It has brought together more than 300
leading representatives of the Indian and the European Union aviation sectors
representing public authorities, airlines, airports, aerospace industries and
service providers.
On the occasion of this Summit in New Delhi, Shri Praful Patel, Minister for
Civil Aviation and Mr. Jacques Barrot, Vice President, European Commission
signed a “Joint Declaration” on 22nd November 2006 that will lay the foundation
for closer cooperation between the EU and India in a range of areas of civil
aviation. Both sides expressed happiness at the prospect of enhancing
cooperation in civil aviation with each other.
“India has been very progressive. We have to calibrate our growth in a way
which is sustainable & more permanent. Apart from active investment in Passenger
traffic, we would welcome more foreign players in Cargo development, like
non-schedule and helicopter operations” said Minister for Civil Aviation, Praful
Patel.
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 (EASA), security, airport
infrastructure, air traffic management, environmental policy, economic
regulation, training and industrial co-operation.
Minister Patel and Vice President Barrot have agreed on two important
concrete steps forward in enhancing EU-India aviation relations in the future.
Firstly it was agreed to sign a ‘horizontal agreement’ to restore legal
certainty to all the bilateral air services agreements between India and EU
Member States. The 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 the two sides agreed to
prepare a Joint Action Plan that will set out the key priorities for
strengthening future technical and technological cooperation.
Both countries have outlined modalities of collaboration on aviation safety,
security and environmental policies and scope for regulatory co-operation and
convergence, market growth and competition, infrastructure needs and sustainable
investment opportunities and air traffic management.
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com
|
