Brussels, 04/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - An informal agreement was reached at the institutional trialogue chaired by the Lithuanian Presidency on 29 November on the reporting of civil aviation incidents - a draft regulation seeking to improve aviation safety through harmonised monitoring of aviation incidents.
The agreement means that data on aviation problems will be duly gathered, stored, protected, exchanged, published and analysed by member states, through national and European registers in an effort to better manage threats to safety. It was emphasised that this was with a view to preventing incidents and not to imposing penalties. Civil aviation employees must be allowed to work in an environment of trust when reporting any incidents that occur. Incident identification should then be followed up by the necessary action to guarantee aviation safety, if necessary. This agreement is expected to be formally ratified by the Council and European Parliament in first reading. (MD/transl.fl)