ABSTRACT
With the major exception of competence over external relations, by 2006 the Commission had largely achieved what it had urged the Council of Ministers to do in its First Memorandum on Civil Aviation in the summer of 1979. The amazing achievement of the architectural build of the SEAM emerged in 1997, as a result of the three packages of reform. Against all odds, the Commission, Britain and the Netherlands had managed to push an agenda forward that eventually triumphed after being opposed first by the other eight and then after the admission of Spain and Portugal into the EC, the other ten Member States. Following the wake of the creation of the SEAM came the work of existing independent airlines like BM and Maersk Air and new no-frills low-cost airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair. These airlines drove the market to its present dynamic and competitive condition. But, without the architectural changes wrought in the European airline system, there would have been no dramatic impact from the likes of Ryanair and EasyJet.
