Il trasporto aereo nell’Unione europea, tra libertà fondamentali e relazioni esterne. Diritto internazionale e disciplina comunitaria

The book aims at demonstrating that the competence to run external relations in the field of air transport, traditionally lying with Member States, is by now becoming an exclusive prerogative of the European Union (EU), which exercises it, above all, through the action of the Commission. As a consequence, Member States seem to have lost nearly every power to autonomously act in the international aviation scene. To reach and corroborate such conclusion the author employs three main instruments: i) review of the principal EC legislative measures adopted in the field of civil aviation up until now; ii) analysis of the activities so far carried out by the EU Commission in running relations with third countries in the sector of international aviation; iii) exam of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) case-law dealing with the matter of external relations not only in the field of transport, but also of other matters covered by the provisions of the founding treaties (e.g. judicial cooperation in civil matters). On the basis of the acknowledgment that the competence to run external relations in civil aviation has, by now, nearly entirely been acquired by the EU and that, as a consequence, Member States have been deprived of the relating power to act individually on the international scene, a number of questions are raised on some specific issues: i.e. legality and admissibility of such process of expropriation, in the light of the fundamental principles governing European integration also after the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty; existence of alternative solutions to be implemented, consistently with both the relevant treaties’ provisions and the ECJ case-law, not only in the field of air transport but also in those other fields where an analogous process of deprivation of Member States’ external powers is taking place.