Just realised...
When Lapierre says "the EU", what does he mean exactly? Air bilats is a member state issue and the EU has no competency in this area, except that there is a Regulation stating that agreements must not infringe EU laws..
So, I suspect Lapierre is referring to the UK, FR, and DE... Are there any others on his list? Surely having 25 (26 if you include the US) simulataneous bilats is going to suck in terms of manpower...