EC demands Poland tears up air agreement with U.S.

The European Commission (EC) believe that Poland should cancel its bilateral air agreement with the United States and at the same time assures that the air traffic would not decline, as over that time it would be able to negotiate a EU-U.S. agreement involving the EU’s 25 member states. "If the government rejects our request we would have to direct the case to the Union's court," announced Loyola de Palacio, Deputy Chairwoman of the European Commission. It claims that the new agreement would be more beneficial, but it would be unable to press the Americans to make any concessions if the current Polish U.S. agreement remained in force. The EU is also demanding that the UK open up its skies to other carriers on the routes from London to the U.S., but no doubt this would very much hit the revenues of British airlines. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B3) M.M.