EC/Morocco agreement: air services, protocol following the accession of Bulgaria and Romania

PURPOSE: to conclude a Protocol amending the Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco on certain aspects of air services, in order to take account of the accession to the European Union of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Decision 2008/275/EC on the conclusion of a Protocol amending Annexes I and II to the Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco on certain aspects of air services, in order to take account of the accession to the European Union of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania.

CONTENT: following the judgments of the Court of Justice in the “Open Skies” cases, on 5 June 2003 the Council granted the Commission a mandate to open negotiations with third countries on the replacement of certain provisions in existing Agreements by a Community Agreement (the “horizontal mandate”). The objectives of such Agreements are to give all Community air carriers non-discriminatory access to routes between the Community and third countries, and to bring bilateral Air Service Agreements between Member States and third countries into line with Community law.

The European Community and Morocco signed a horizontal Air Service Agreement which amends certain provisions of the bilateral Aviation Agreements between the Member States and Morocco (see CNS/2005/0161).

This Decision aims to bring this Agreement into line with the fact that Bulgaria and Romania have joined the Community. It specifically aims to meet this objective by incorporating, into the horizontal agreements, the necessary technical and linguistic adaptations of the Agreement for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union. The corresponding provisions will be added to the Annex of the Agreement concluded between Morocco and the European Community.