In November 2006, the European Union and Russia agreed on a mechanism for overflight charges for Asia-bound European airliners using Russian airspace. Until now, European carriers have had to pay more than $300 million a year for flights over Siberia, the fastest route to destinations in China, Japan and Southeast Asia
"The Council adopted a decision on the signing and provisional application of an Agreement in form of an Exchange of Letters on agreed principles of the modernization of the existing system of utilization of the Trans-Siberian routes with Russia and on the setting up of an Equalization Mechanism by the Member States," the Council said in a statement following a meeting of the EU agriculture and fisheries ministers in Brussels.
The equalization mechanism aims to provide equal competition terms for Trans-Siberian routes between the EU air carriers during the transitional period, until the end of December 2013, the statement said.
"The agreement is planned to be signed during the German presidency. It will apply provisionally from September 1, 2007. However, some provisions will be applied provisionally already from the date of signature, in particular, the provision that the newly operated overflight frequencies granted by the Russian side will be free of payments from that date," the statement said.
