Despite persistent obstacles, the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and representatives from the European Parliament would like to finalise the inter-institutional negotiations on Wednesday evening 29 November on reform of the statutes of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
This meeting follows the many technical negotiations that have taken place this month (see EUROPE 11903) in an attempt to obtain a clear consensus on the competency rules governing this agency. The Commission proposed reforming the statutes in December 2015. The two parties would like to conclude the dossier before the end of the year so that they do not have to return to the issue under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council in the first half of 2018.
During the most recent technical meetings, the Parliament and Estonian Presidency reached an agreement on several different points. The European Parliament therefore withdrew its environmental requests demanding that the EASA be able to impose more binding standards then those of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for CO2 emissions from aircraft. The standards will therefore simply respect those set out by the ICAO. EASA will, however, be able to produce environmental standards where the ICAO has still not taken action.
An agreement was also reached on article 55 in the draft regulation. Although the agency of a state does therefore not have competency for ensuring its mission, it can, on a voluntary basis, call on the state to support EASA in accomplishing its tasks.
Article 59 of the proposal was also debated and provides member states with an opportunity to take unilateral safeguard measures in exceptional circumstances and against those advocated by EASA. Parliament is opposed to this but this possibility was ultimately allowed.
Sensitive issues involving drones and delegated/ implementing acts. On the other hand, there is still no agreement on the compulsory registration of drones with the national authorities. Parliament is calling for compulsory registration of drones weighing more than 250g and/or are used for professional purposes. The Council was not happy with this and considers that all certification and registration questions should be regulated by way of implementing acts. Parliament, however, would like delegated acts over which they would exert certain control.
Another major point of the debate between the two parties involves the possibility of adopting implementing acts, if necessary, on several technical and political points. The European Parliament is strongly opposed to a certain number of these implementing acts and is calling for more delegated acts. This constitutes one of the points that could scupper the negotiations on Wednesday 29 November, according to several European sources.
The question of EASA’s future name also needs to be settled. Parliament would like it to be called the European Aviation Agency. Although the Council is opposed to this, this does not appear to be the main point of contention between the co-legislators.
Given the current disagreements, it is therefore possible that the negotiations will not be concluded or finalised until December. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)