Singapore is a Member State of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
On 7 June 2016 the Council authorised the Commission to open comprehensive air transport negotiations with ASEAN. The future EU-ASEAN comprehensive air transport agreement (CATA) will be the first block-to-block air transport agreement and will cover market access as well as a wide range of areas (safety, security, air traffic management, social, consumer and environmental protection, fair competition etc.) where regulatory convergence should gradually be established. The negotiations are currently ongoing.
A Horizontal Aviation Agreement between the EU and Singapore was signed on 9 June 2006. This agreement allows any EU airline to operate flights between Singapore and any EU Member State where it is established and where a bilateral agreement with Singapore exists and traffic rights are available. It does not replace the bilateral agreements but adapts them to bring them into line with EU law. This is a major step change from the traditional set-up of aviation based on nationality restrictions and complements the EU's internal aviation market on the external side.