HUSHKITTED AIRCRAFT - Council conclusions 29 avril 1999

AIR TRANSPORT

The Council decided to postpone the adoption of this Regulation until

29 April 1999 at the latest, and adopted the following conclusions:

"The Council of the European Union notes that its common position on

the Regulation for the registration and operation within the Community

of aircraft re-certificated to meet the ICAO Chapter 3 certification

standards by means of adding hushkits or by means of re-engining

aircraft with old technology engines with low by-pass ratios has been

approved by the European Parliament and is due for adoption.

The Council therefore declares its intention to adopt this Regulation in

due time and not later than the end of April 1999. This postponement

will allow the Commission to continue its consultations with the

United States and would permit, if the results are satisfactory, the

adoption in parallel with the Regulation of a declaration outlining the

content of an agreement with the United States on the next steps to be

taken. This declaration should cover:

- A strategy for reaching a new noise certification

standard as soon as possible, including a phase-out plan

for hushkitted and re-certificated aircraft with low

by-pass ratios, to meet the environmental aims of the

Regulation;

- And possible proposals for implementation of any

agreement with the USA that the Commission would be

invited to make as soon as possible in the framework of

the decisional procedures of the European Community."

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union Thursday confirmed its

decision to delay the entry of a controversial new aircraft noise

law for one year following intense U.S. pressure.

EU diplomats said industry ministers from the 15-nation bloc

rubber stamped the ban at a meeting in Luxembourg. "It's gone

through as an 'A' point (without discussion)," one said.

EU ambassadors and the European Parliament agreed Wednesday that

the proposed law to restrict the use of older aircraft fitted

with noise mufflers or "hushkits," should take effect a year

after its formal adoption instead of on April 1, 1999 as first

planned.

The EU concession defuses a disagreement with the United States

that had threatened to escalate into a nasty trade war.

Europe has pledged to continue talking to the United States about

ways to amend the law, which Washington says discriminates almost

solely against U.S. firms such as Boeing Co.

The law was supposed to ban the addition of newly hushkitted

aircraft to national air registers beginning this month and,

starting in April 2002, prevent the use of noise-modified

aircraft from outside the EU that are not currently operating in

the bloc.

It will now apply a year after its adoption, giving companies an

extra year to introduce newly muffled aircraft in the European

Union.

Washington said the ban was designed specifically to disadvantage

U.S. companies, and would bar some aircraft that meet current

international noise norms, because it is based on a technical

standard rather than purely on noise levels.

The United States estimates American firms could lose as much as

billion and Congress was considering a ban on Concorde flights

in retaliation.

The EU introduced the measure to reduce noise around Europe's

congested airports, after negotiations on the next generation of

quiet planes became bogged down in the International Civil

Aviation Organisation.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

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EU BOWS TO US PRESSURE ON AIRCRAFT HUSHKITS

ENDS Daily - 30/04/99

The EU has postponed for one year a planned regulation that would

have frozen the number of aircraft fitted with special noise reduction

equipment, or hushkits, entitled to use its airports. Taken by

industry ministers in Luxembourg yesterday, the decision ends months

of speculation over whether the EU would bow to pressure from the USA,

which has campaigned against the measure.

Only recently EU transport commissioner Neil Kinnock stated publicly

that the regulation - which had already been delayed for one month to

give time for negotiations between the EU and the USA - would

definitely come into force on 1 May (ENDS Daily 19 April 1999). But

when ministers adopted the regulation yesterday, they also delayed

its implementation until 29 April 2000.

The apparent U-turn is a result of concerted lobbying by the USA,

which accused the EU of erecting a trade barrier against its older

jets - many of which are reaching the end of their commercial life in

the US and are destined for export. The USA used a combination of

threats of retaliatory trade action if the EU went ahead with the

measure, and a promise to cooperate to get a new, stricter,

international standard on aircraft noise if it delayed. The

US commerce secretary, William Daley, said yesterday that the US

would now work to reach "a common understanding on the remedies to

[the EU's] noise concerns".

The European Parliament reluctantly agreed to the date change as the

"best worst option," according to a parliament official. Although

MEPs could have vetoed the modification to the agreed text, under

procedural rules this would have blocked the regulation in its

entirety.

The delay was immediately slammed by ACI Europe - the trade body that

represents Europe's airports. Director general Philippe Hamon said:

"European citizens living near airports will have to suffer

unnecessarily another year of unlimited growth in the number of

noisy hushkitted aircraft". The trade body is pushing for quieter

aircraft to offset public fears about noise from traffic growth in

western Europe. ACI's own figures show the number of commercial

civil flights in principal European airports rose by over 5% in the

last year.

Contacts: EU Council of Ministers (http://ue.eu.int), tel:+ 32 2 285

6111.