POLAND'S RESPONSE TO US-EU AIR TRANSPORT AGREEMENT

UNCLAS WARSAW 002514 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EB/TRA AND EUR/NCE EUR/NCE FOR BPUTNEY AND DKOSTELANCIK EB/TRA FOR JBYERLY COMMERCE FOR 4232/ITA/MAC/EUR/OECA/MROGERS,JBURGESS,JKIMBA LL LONDON FOR FAA CHRIS BARKS USEU FOR KMORENSKI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAIR EI EUN KTIA PL SUBJECT: POLAND'S RESPONSE TO US-EU AIR TRANSPORT AGREEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT REF: SECSTATE 195012 ¶1. (U) Econoff delivered reftel demarche on December 6 to Sylwia Ciszewska, Director of the Air Transport Department and Malgorzata Alberti, Head of the International Agreements Division, both with the Civil Aviation Office (CAO). The CAO had learned about the U.S. announcement from the European Commission earlier the same morning. The CAO was appreciative that we informed them about the change, but was not deeply concerned. Because Poland and the U.S. have an existing bilateral agreement, the CAO does not believe that U.S.-Polish relations in the aviation sector will be affected. However, as a member of the EU, Poland realizes that the bilateral agreement is not in line with EU regulations and that completing a U.S. - EU Agreement is important. The CAO also stated that the rulemaking on "actual control" of U.S. airlines is not a priority for Poland. The CAO believes that negotiations between the U.S. and EU will resume shortly, and as Poland has been since the beginning, Poland will remain deeply involved and interested in the EU committee working on the negotiations. ¶2. (U) The demarche was also shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jaroslaw Starzyk of the EU Department, Janusz Lacki, Law and Treaty Department and Andrzej Jaroszynski, Americas Department. MFA had no comment. ASHE