(SYDNEY) - Australia and the EU will next month launch talks on forging a historic "open skies" aviation pact that could remove restrictions on flights between the two continents, a minister said Tuesday.

Australia's Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said he would travel to Europe in July after European Union transport ministers last week approved a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate with Canberra.

"I welcome this decision as an important step towards a historic open skies agreement which could deliver greater competition, more flights and lower air fares between Australia and EU countries," Albanese said in a statement.

"An 'open skies' agreement could remove many -- if not all -- of the existing regulatory limitations on Australian and European airlines operating between our two continents," he added.

Such an agreement would allow carriers to offer more flights at cheaper fares by sweeping away what Canberra brands "outdated bilateral agreements" that limit the number of weekly flights between Australia and European capitals.

Albanese told parliament he would meet EU officials as well as his French and German counterparts for talks on forging the accord, which Australia's new government began pushing for in March.

Earlier attempts to seal an "open skies" agreement with the EU stalled after some EU nations, including France, deemed such a pact to be too favourable for Australia's national airline, Qantas, according to media reports.

Currently, Australian carriers are limited to offering only three flights per week to Paris, a status that prompted the carrier to cancel its own flights to France and to instead rely on a code-share agreement.

But Canberra is now arguing that times have changed since bilateral air services agreements were written to protect national airlines.

Australia's centre-left government, which swept to power in November, is committed to negotiating a truly comprehensive agreement with the EU, Albanese said.

In 2007, some 4.5 million passengers travelled between Australia and the European Union, making it Australia's largest aviation market.

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