EU/Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement

PURPOSE : signature, provisional application and conclusion of the Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, on the one hand, and the Kingdom of Morocco, on the other hand.

PROPOSED ACT : Council Decision.

CONTENT : the Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco has been negotiated under a mandate received from the Council in December 2004. Based on the negotiating directives of the mandate, the text of the Morocco agreement was agreed ad referendum at the final negotiating round on 14 December 2005 on the occasion of the first Euromed conference of Transport Ministers held in Marrakech on 15 December 2005. The signature of the agreement is foreseen for the first half of 2006.

Due to the advance status of the relationship between Morocco and the European Union, the Morocco agreement will result in the seamless integration of the Moroccan transport market into the single European market through a two-stage approach, always based on the three pillars of the aviation external policy: regulatory convergence (integration of the EC aviation regulations, participation in the Single European Sky) assorted with targeted technical assistance (through instruments such as the PAST), leading to the highest possible degree of market opening. This would result in an unrestricted commercial environment where operators are free to take commercial decisions, and where they operate under the highest standards in the areas of aviation safety, aviation security, environmental and consumer protection.