US embassy cable - 03ROME4802

UNCLAS  ROME 004802 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
USEU PLEASE PASS TO FAA - PFELDMAN; FAA WASHDC FOR CARL 
BURLESON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAIR, ECON, ETRD, EU, IT, EUN, AVIATION, FAA 
SUBJECT: CIVAIR BEHIND THE SCENES: GOI TAKES LONG VIEW OF 
OPEN SKIES 
 
REF: ROME 2837 
 
(U) Sensitive but unclassified. 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1. (SBU) GOI officials, back from the first round of U.S.-EU 
Open Skies negotiations, are taking a long view of the 
process, since Italy believes it will be "years" before 
existing bilateral agreements are replaced by anything 
concrete from Brussels.  Aldo Sansone, the Transportation 
Ministry's Director General for International Relations and 
also a member of the EU negotiating team at the Washington 
talks, was frank about the obstacles ahead and about GOI 
expectations for the next round of talks in December. 
Sansone also offered assurances that the current bilateral 
aviation agreement was alive and well and described a 
behind-the-scenes exchange with the European Commission in 
which the GOI could carry on under the existing bilateral 
agreement in return for ceding civair negotiating authority 
to Brussels. END SUMMARY. 
 
DOUBTFUL "EARLY HARVEST" 
------------------------ 
 
2. (SBU) According to Sansone, EU negotiators (like their 
U.S. counterparts) are using the time before the next round 
of talks in December to prepare positions that further 
explain their views on the entire range of issues discussed 
in Washington.  Sansone expects that both sides in December 
will clarify their positions - still a preliminary stage 
before negotiations begin in earnest.  He does not expect an 
"early harvest" of minor agreements to emerge from the next 
round, and believes that the EU will wait until agreement on 
more substantive issues is reached before ceding agreement on 
minor issues. 
 
A LONG-HAUL FLIGHT AHEAD 
------------------------ 
 
3. (SBU) Sansone characterized both sides as constrained in 
their ability to make significant commitments before the 2004 
elections - the EU Parliamentary elections in the spring and 
the U.S. general election in the fall.  He felt these 
elections would empower both sides to bridge significant 
U.S.-EU civair divisions.  However, he also thought it would 
be "years" before final agreements are reached, particularly 
in areas such as Open Skies and foreign ownership. 
 
4. (SBU) To reach agreement on the foreign ownership issue, 
Sansone explained that the two sides must not only bridge a 
deep ideological divide, but also enact internal legislative 
changes that will take time.  The U.S., he maintained, 
pursues the more political and treaty-based Open Skies model, 
while the EU - true to its origins as a free internal 
economic area - favors the "Open Aviation Area" model, in 
which all distinctions between U.S. and EU ownership and 
cabotage rights would be erased.  The divide is a fundamental 
one, which Sansone believes requires cultural and 
institutional change and cannot simply be solved by 
negotiation alone. 
 
EXISTING BILATERAL AGREEMENT SAFE 
--------------------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) After the European Court of Justice threatened to 
invalidate all individual EU member nation civair agreements 
with the U.S. in favor of an agreement with Brussels, the 
GOI, according to Sansone, was "fearful" Italy could no 
longer operate within the context of the existing bilateral 
agreement.  Italy then approached the Commission which agreed 
that the bilateral agreement could continue as the legal 
framework, providing Italy ceded negotiating authority to 
Brussels.  Sansone thus understands that the existing 
U.S.-Italy bilateral agreement remains in force. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
6. (SBU) Seeing wide divergences on issues such as foreign 
 
 
ownership and open skies, and pre-election political caution 
both in Europe and in the U.S., Italy has low expectations 
for short-term progress in U.S.-EU civair negotiations. For 
these reasons, Italy will continue to observe understandings 
reached under the current bilateral civil aviation agreement 
for the forseeable future.  END COMMENT. 
COUNTRYMAN 
 
 
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 2003ROME04802 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED