Podgorica_ Montenegro Airlines has called for the postponement of Podgorica’s ratification of the European Open Skies Agreement to protect the small Adriatic country’s national airline.
Montenegro’s Civil Aviation Administration recently signed the so-called Horizontal Agreement which extends the EU’s Open Skies Policy to countries that have association agreements with Brussels.
The Open Skies policy makes it possible for all airline companies in the EU to fly anywhere within its territory.
The President of Montenegro Airlines, Zoran Djurisic, considers this would amount to unfair competition, since some large German company could fly from Podgorica to anywhere in Europe, while tiny Montenegro Airlines could not possibly do that.
Quoted in local media on Thursday, Djurisic said that the company was ready to accept the Open Skies Agreement any time, since it met all technical and security regulations, but the problem had to do with legislation, which had not been harmonized with the EU.
“At this moment, it would be very harmful for Montenegro if it ratified the agreement, since it would mean that what is Montenegrin is also European, while what is European is European only. Montenegro would not benefit or profit from that”, Djurisic concluded. (BIRN)
No comments:
Post a Comment