The Council of the European Union, a body consisting of ministers from all 28 member states of the EU, adopted a general approach on the proposed rules for safeguarding competition in air transport on June 7, 2018. The idea behind the proposal is to ensure fair competition between EU and non-EU airlines.

"Once adopted, this instrument will provide the European aviation sector with a tool similar to those existing at an international level in other areas of commercial activity," Ivaylo Moskovski, Bulgarian Minister for Transport, Information Technology and Communications has said. Bulgaria currently holds the rotational presidency of the Council of the EU.

If adopted, the EU regulation would eventually replace current rules which are widely seen as dormant in practice. It would allow the EU carriers and the member states to ask the European Commission to open an investigation in case they suspect that non-EU states or airlines either act in violation of international commitments or adopt measures meant to cause unfair injury to EU airlines. The Commission would, in turn, be able to impose financial or operational penalties following the investigation, although it would explicitly be barred from stripping traffic rights from the non-EU offenders.

The measure is understood to be a solution to the competition coming mostly from the Gulf carriers, seen by some EU airlines as unfair.

Before the legislation enters into force, it needs to be adopted by the European Parliament. In case the Parliament amends the Commission's proposal, a consensus will need to be established between the position of the EU governments and the Parliament.