RI lobbies European leaders on flight ban during ASEM summit

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 10/26/2008 2:13 PM  |  National

Indonesia took the opportunity of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing on Friday and Saturday to lobby European Union (EU) leaders to lift EU's ban on Indonesian airlines flying to Europe.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Saturday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had raised the flight ban issue at a meeting with EU president Jose Manuel Barroso on the summit's sidelines.

Yudhoyono did the same when he met several European leaders in succession, including French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, Bulgarian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

"I, for my part, also discussed the matter with the British foreign minister and other European foreign ministers who I met at the forum," Hassan said, as quoted by Antara.

According to Hassan, the EU Commission had maintained its previously stated position that Indonesia should revise its transportation law to better ensure passengers' safety.

The EU also wanted to see safety regulations at the airline operators' level, he said.

After Indonesia's transportation law has been revised, the EU will conduct periodic assessments of Indonesia's airlines' safety conditions until they reach a score of 65.

"The scores of some of the airlines, in fact, have now already risen from 25 to 35," he added.

The minister said he hoped the EU would lift the ban on the airlines one by one.

He said the EU had agreed that there had been an improvement in the safety performance of three airlines, namely Garuda Indonesia, Merpati and Airfast.

At a meeting with the EU president, he said that the EU had not discriminated against Indonesian airlines, Hassan said. "They said they had recently also banned two EU airlines, so they are not discriminating," he said.

He said the European leaders who had talked with Indonesia even showed their preparedness to help Indonesia. "They wanted to know what really was the problem and what they could do to help," he said.

The minister said negotiations with the EU would continue until the ban was lifted.

He hoped at least they would first lift the ban on airlines that have already improved their safety performances.  (dre)

 

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