Brussels, 23/03/2016 (Agence Europe) -AVSEC, the comitology expert group dealing with aviation safety, is due to meet up on Thursday 31 March in the wake of the double terror attack in Brussels in Belgium (including at Brussels National Airport) on 22 March, according to a European source.
On the day of the attacks, several European sources had talked about the group's upcoming meeting as a time for discussing possible arrangements to cover “softs areas,” that are subject to spot checks, such as the entrance hall of Brussels Airport (see EUROPE 11517).
It is possible to gain an idea in advance of the scope of the recommendations. According to the vice-president of the European Commission with responsibility for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who was asked on 23 March about responses in terms of airport security, one must react proportionally rather than in a panic and one should respect the areas of competence at national and European level.
His comments fit with the position taken by the European Commission on the day after the failed attacks on a high-speed Thalys train in August 2015, which also called for proportionate measures and respect of subsidiarity (see EUROPE 11407 and EUROPE 11387).
Airports on the alert
The vice-president's statements will come as a relief to airports, which on the day of the attacks had warned of the cost of new airport security measures in “soft areas,” such as introducing security controls at airport entrances.
ACI-Europe, an organisation representing European airports in Brussels, indicate that the costs engendered by security measures represented in 2014 more than 16% of the total airport budget as opposed to 5 to 8 % before the attacks on 11 September 2001. According to the organisation , “Europe is in the only region in the world where aviation security receives little or no state funding” with the exception of Germany.
“We have frequently called for states to be responsible for funding airport security (as occurs in the USA, where the Transport Security Administration is funded entirely by the Department of Homeland Security),” explained Robert O'Meara, head of communication at ACI-Europe. “Ultimately, if new measures were introduced and European airports were required to pay for them, then the 16% of airport operating costs currently represented by security would increase and airports would need to adjust their economics accordingly,” he explained, alluding to airport taxes, which are a bone of contention between airports and airlines (see EUROPE 11411).
He said one should not focus on airport security but take a more political approach by boosting cooperation among national intelligence agencies. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)