Brussels, 13/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - With only two Functional Aviation Blocks (FAB) out of nine fully operational, Georg Jarzembowski, the European coordinator for FABs drew up a rather gloomy balance-sheet to MEPs during an exchange of views at the transport and tourism committee (TRAN) on Tuesday 11 October. He regretted that although member states had made a commitment to the reorganisation of European airspace, they still appeared to want to defend their respective national airspace. Although two blocks, British- Irish and Swedish-Danish have been set up, the others are still pending and the agreements should be signed before the end of the year. The coordinator is very concerned by the central Europe block, which has still not been set up, although it covers 55% of European air space. The chair of the TRAN committee, Brian Simpson, was just as worried and explained that the situation lacks political courage from member states. A delay in setting up the FABs will have harmful consequences to the efficiency of European airspace. MEPs were not surprised by the bad news delivered by Jarzembowski. The latter has therefore appealed for their support to send this message on to the Council and respective national governments. (MD/transl.fl)