The European Commission is planning to introduce an EU-wide blacklist of airlines whose aircraft are grounded for safety reasons.
Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot told France Inter radio that Tuesday's 'terrible catastrophe' in Venezuela, in which 152 French nationals perished, showed an airlines blacklist was now vital.
He said the blacklist could be set up under an EU accord predating the crash that will make sharing information on air safety obligatory.
'As soon as the European Parliament has ratified this agreement, we think the European air safety agency will be able to organise this information sharing,' Mr Barrot said.
Operated by privately-owned airline West Caribbean, the plane that crashed on Tuesday was carrying tourists home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique from Panama when it plummeted to the ground in western Venezuela after reporting engine trouble.
It was one of the Latin American country's worst air disasters.
