The basic Philosophy behind and the Development of the EU Economic Air Transport Policy and other Policies which affect it

The European Communities were created in 1958 by the Treaty of Rome. Its institutions should guarantee that coherent decisions are taken, implemented and legally enforced in all Member States. Its general rules include, inter alia, provisions on right of establishment, freedom to provide services, competition, state aids and approximation of legislation. However, the Treaty included Article 84, which in its paragraph 2 stated that the Council could take any appropriate decision as to policy for air and sea transport. This was in contrast to what was stated in respect of the other modes of transport. On that basis practically everybody in air transport thought that until such a decision was taken air transport was excluded from Treaty provisions. Consequently while policy was developed for other modes of transport nothing happened in air transport until 1974. In this year the European Court of Justice took a decision concerning the application of social rules in the maritime sector. In this context the Court stated, contrary to the general belief, that the general provisions of the Treaty did apply to sea and air transport and that the exclusion contained in Article 84 only applied to the provisions contained in the transport chapter. It took some time for the Member States to get over the shock but in 1978 they had become convinced that an application of the general principles of the Treaty without attention being given to the specific characteristics of air transport would be too dangerous. They were also to some extent under the impression of the US deregulation, which came into effect in 1978. Therefore, a priority list for air transport was approved1 in 1978 by the Council. This was followed up in 1979 by a memorandum (the first) on air transport (A Community Approach) issued by the Commission. This was the start to a process where the European Union in the course of a number of years (14) developed an economic air transport policy for its internal market. This policy introduced, step by step, not only a liberal system but also safeguards and harmonization measures with a view to permit time for adaptation and to achieve a level playing field. As a consequence, essential provisions included in the bilateral agreements between the twelve Member States were therefore automatically replaced. This development is described in the following and also illustrated in annex 1. The liberalisation concerned the scheduled air transport but ultimately all types of air carriers were covered.

欧洲共同体于1958年依据《罗马条约》成立。其机构应确保在所有成员国中，一致的决策得到制定、执行并受到法律约束。其一般规则除其他外，包括关于设立权、服务提供自由、竞争、国家援助及立法协调的条款。然而，该条约包含第84条，其第2款规定，理事会可就航空与海运政策作出任何适当决定。这与针对其他运输方式的规定形成对比。基于此，航空运输领域几乎所有人都认为，在该决定作出前，航空运输被排除在条约条款之外。因此，尽管其他运输方式的政策已逐步制定，但航空运输领域直至1974年仍无进展。1974年，欧洲法院就海运领域社会规则的适用作出一项判决。在此背景下，法院指出，与普遍看法相反，条约的一般条款确实适用于海运和空运，而第84条所载的排除仅适用于运输章节中的条款。成员国花了一段时间才从震惊中恢复，但到1978年，它们已确信，若不考虑航空运输的特定特征而适用条约的一般原则将过于危险。它们在一定程度上也受到1978年生效的美国放松管制措施的影响。因此，理事会于1978年批准了一份航空运输优先清单¹。随后，委员会于1979年发布了首份关于航空运输的备忘录（《共同体方法》）。这标志着欧盟在接下来的14年中为其内部市场制定经济航空运输政策的进程正式启动。该政策逐步引入了自由化体系，同时辅以保障措施与协调手段，旨在为适应过程留出时间并实现公平竞争环境。因此，12个成员国之间双边协议中的核心条款被自动取代。这一发展过程将在下文阐述，并在附件1中加以说明。自由化最初针对定期航空运输，但最终覆盖了所有类型的航空公司。