Open skies talks opened last week with EU

The new aviation agreement which intends to promote competition in civil aviation will replace existing bilateral aviation agreements between Israel and individual EU members
 
Israel and Europe opened last week a dialog aimed at establishing new flight agreement between the two.
 
The new aviation agreement which intends to promote competition in civil aviation will replace existing bilateral aviation agreements between Israel and individual EU members with an agreement with the EU as a whole.
 
Israel's position is that it is willing to open its skies to competition among flights from European countries to Israel, provided that the total number of flights, as specified in bilateral aviation agreements between Israel and the countries in question,remains unchanged.
 
Israel established earlier this year a special inter-ministerial steering committee headed by Transportation Ministry Director-General Gideon Siterman to establish guidelines for the negotiation with the EU.
 
The steering committee includes officials from the Finance, Foreign and Tourism Ministries.