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The European Union and Japan have reached an agreement that will further strengthen cooperation between both parties in the field of aviation.
The agreement signed by the Swedish Presidency of the Council will give EU carriers non-discriminatory access to routes between the bloc and Japan, thus promoting “open and fair competition”, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“Today we have set another milestone in the EU’s external aviation policy. This agreement will allow all EU air carriers to benefit from the right of the establishment when providing air services to Japan, thus bringing existing bilateral agreements of our member states in line with Union law. This will further develop the EU’s cooperation with one of our key partners in the region,” Swedish Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Andreas Carlson, said.
The European Council through a statement said that it gave permission to the Commission to initiate negotiations with officials from third countries on the replacement of specific provisions in bilateral air services agreements, following the judgments of the Court of Justice in the Open Skies cases, on June 5, 2003.
Restrictions introduced to stop Coronavirus’s further spread led to a profound decrease in the number of flights, thus causing a devastating situation, especially for the travel and tourism sector. Recently, the Simple Flying report noted that the number of flights planned for the first quarter of this year remains at 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
In the first quarter of 2023, a total of 1,620 flights are scheduled for a period between January and March, just 54 per cent of those registered in the first quarter of 2020.
At the same time, Japan will have scheduled passenger flights to a total of 14 European countries in the first quarter, including Italy and Finland.
In September last year, Spain signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan to further strengthen cooperation between both countries and help the further development of the tourism sector.
The Tourism Ministry of Tourism announced that the agreement would permit both countries’ governments to share experiences and develop actions of common interest.
Last year, the European Commission presented an analysis regarding the measures taken by Japan, which led to visa implications while giving an overview of the efforts taken in order to restore visa-waiver reciprocity.
The Commission stressed that ensuring that all countries on the European Union visa-free list abolish their visa requirements for EU citizens remains among the fundamental principles of the EU visa policy.
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