The European Union and the United States launched talks on Thursday on liberalising transatlantic aviation, with Britain pushing for greater freedoms but U.S. politicians likely to oppose further movement, according to Reuters. "The European Union has one clear political goal, we want to establish an open aviation area between the United States of America and the European Union," said Zoltan Kazatsay from the European Commission's Directorate for Energy and Transport. The second round of "Open Skies" discussions builds on an agreement that allows airlines to access any U.S. city from any point in the EU and vice versa and which entered force in March. The move promises to increase competition between carriers, could cut ticket prices and may eventually pave the way for transatlantic mergers to create the first global airlines. Britain has led critics of the earlier agreement and is calling for the abolition of U.S. federal laws that cap foreign control of U.S. airlines at 25 percent of their voting stock. But the U.S. Congress will not easily be persuaded to approve any such deal amid fears that U.S. airlines would be the main takeover targets, said C. Boyden Gray, the U.S. envoy to the European Commission. U.S. airlines are generally seen as more vulnerable than their European rivals, especially during the current economic turmoil. "It's going to take a lot of work to persuade our Congress that this is something that should be allowed," said Gray. "I don't think it's impossible to do at all, but it will take generating public support in the United States, and that is doable but is not easy," he added.
