ECA and US ALPA met in April to strengthen their position on the EU-US negotiations towards a 2nd stage of the Open Skies Air Transport Agreement. Both Associations agreed that without an appropriate response from the EU and US delegations on the social concerns generated by the implementation of the 1st stage EU-US agreement, there can be little support for a far reaching 2nd stage agreement.

The typical BA-OpenSkies or UAL Air Lingus cases have shown the Pilots' community that their employers will not hesitate to locate subsidiaries in a different country to the one where their mainline is established, thereby attempting to stop Pilots' unions from exercising full representation rights. ECA and US ALPA are demanding that a legal framework is set up that would re-balance industrial relations between employers and employees; and allow Pilots' Unions to be able to fully represent their members as effectively as in airlines which are nationally owned and controlled. Experience shows that good industrial relations contribute to a healthy structural development of the company at national, European and international level.