The Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament are hoping that the inter-institutional negotiations (trialogues) on reform of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will go ahead at the meeting on 29 November next, despite some still significant differences remaining.
The discussions on 26 October last during the European Parliament plenary session did not manage to reach consensus on political questions. The negotiators could therefore not reach an agreement on the name of the future agency (see EUROPE 11750) or on the question of the agency’s governance.
The two sides also expressed their differences regarding environmental requirements aircraft would have to respect. The Estonian Presidency of the Council considers that these requirements should comply with the standards advocated by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), whilst European Parliament representatives would like to leave the door open to more binding standards. It would appear, however, that the Baltic and Scandinavian states appear to be moving in the direction advocated by the Parliament while certain West European countries are going in the opposite direction.
The Council and Parliament also agreed on the principle of digital registration of drone owners by the national authorities, which will integrate this data in a harmonised and interoperable European register. There is, however, a difference in the position between the institutions. MEPs would like this to be included in the future regulation on compulsory registration when drones weigh more than 250g and/ or are being used for commercial purposes. The Estonian Presidency, however, does not want this characteristic to be mentioned in the text, given that the question of drones is evolving very rapidly and the rules, according to the Council, should therefore be able to adapt as quickly as possible and should therefore not be governed at European Union level.
Another difference that still needs to be resolved involves the possibility of the member states taking unilateral safeguard measures, in exceptional circumstances, against recommendations from the agency. The European Parliament is opposed to this European Commission proposal, which would be introduced in article 59 of the text.
These points of disagreement will therefore be tackled during the technical “trialogues” leading up to Wednesday 29 November. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)