Since 1995 a certain number of Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden) hav
e signed open skies agreements with the United States. Already in 1994, the Commission reacted to the US open ski
es initiative which would cause discrimination within the internal aviation market, and made it clear in a letter to the Member States that the conclusion of such bilateral agreements would affect the internal aviation market. In 1995 and 1996, the Commission sent therefore, as stage one in the legal procedur
...[+++]e, letters of formal notice to the Member States concerned informing them that the individual open skies agreements negotiated or concluded with the United States constituted an infringement of Community law.