NOTICE
Pursuant to a request made by the European Union, delegations representing the United States and the European Union (EU) and its Member States, held a special meeting of the U.S.-EU Joint Committee on November 25, 2014, in Washington, DC. The delegations briefly discussed the application of Norwegian Air International (NAI) pending before the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for U.S. operating authority. The European delegation recited a history of the handling of the application by the DOT, and stated its belief that the handling of the application was inconsistent with the “minimum procedural delay requirement in Article 4” of the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement (ATA).
The U.S. delegation noted that the application continues to be the subject of active consideration by the DOT, that the application presents novel and complex issues, and that a range of different parties have participated in the proceeding raising substantive legal and regulatory points both in favor of and opposed to NAI’s application. In response to a question from the European delegation regarding the timing of the DOT review process, the U.S. delegation did not provide any deadline or estimated date for further DOT action on the application, noting that it would be inappropriate to speculate on a pending regulatory matter.
The European delegation stated its view that these circumstances represent a breach of the ATA, noted that a dispute between the parties arises and that the EU and its Member States reserve the right “to take all possible measures permissible under the ATA.”
.
