PURPOSE: to conclude a Protocol amending the Agreement between the Community and Morocco on certain aspects of air services to take account of Bulgaria and Romania acceding to the EU.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision
BACKGROUND: the Community and Morocco signed a horizontal Air Service Agreement in 2006, which amends certain provisions of the Aviation Agreements between the EU’s Member States and Morocco, largely in response to a 2003 ECJ judgement in the “Open Skies” cases. (See CNS/2005/0161).Bulgaria and Romania, who became EU Members in January 2007, already had separate aviation agreements with the Kingdom of Morocco signed in 1966 and 1971 respectively.
CONTENT: the purpose of this proposal is to bring the Bulgarian and Romanian Agreements into line with Community law and to enable these two new Member States to become parties to the horizontal EC-Morocco Air Service Agreement. In order to do so the Annexes to the EU-Morocco Air Agreement will need to be revised. Once adopted the amended Agreement and Protocol will supersede existing provisions in the bilateral Aviation Agreements concluded between the Republic of Bulgaria, Romania and Morocco.