Road to liberalisation in Europe. Facilitating liberalisation within the EU was by no means an easy task, especially given the final decision lay in the hands of Member States in the Council. They were reluctant to change the traditional bilateral system for decades. Liberalisation in the EU was driven by two parallel initiatives of the Commission, which mutually reinforced one another. The Directorate General for Transport had made several attempts to push through liberalisation measures in the Council since the mid-1970s, while the Competition Directorate forced the application of competition rules in the air transport sector. The original framework of air transport in Europe was based on bilateral ASAs of the Chicago system. This situation and the special strategic, economic and national interests connected with aviation resulted in the ambiguous, not too far reaching provisions in the EC Treaty. In contrast to all other sectors, there was no basis for a 62 P Nijkamp, ‘Liberalisation of Air Transport in Europe: The Survival of the Fittest?’ Research memorandum 1996-1 (1996), available at: <xxx://xxxxx.xxxx.xx.xx/19960011.pdf> accessed 31 December 2012. 63 Xxxxxx 2007 (n 35) 144. 64 ibid. common transport policy.65 Article 80(2) of the EC Treaty established that ‘the Council may, acting by a qualified majority, decide whether, to what extent and by what procedure appropriate provisions may be laid down, for sea and air transport’.66 Member States tried to interpret this obscure drafting as excluding air transport from the ambit of the entire Treaty (minimalist approach).67 On the other hand, the Commission argued that the general provisions - including those on competition - apply (maximalist approach).68 The final word was given by the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court of Justice) in several judgments over the course of a number of years, which approved the Commission’s approach.69 Since 1979, the Commission has put forward several documents and legislative proposals in support of air transport liberalisation and the application of competition rules to the sector.70 The first partial success of this took the form of the experimental directive of the Council on regional air services;71 although, its significance was certainly limited.72 The Commission’s position was further strengthened in 1985 when the Court of Justice found that the Council was in breach of its obligations when it failed to establish a common transport policy.73 In 1985, a precise timetable was set up for t...
