On Thursday 25 February, the MEPs of the Committee on Transport (TRAN) took stock of the legislative work underway in the European Parliament on the revision of the SES2+ Regulation on the implementation of the Single European Sky and the basic regulation of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Two proposals were presented by the Commission last September (see EUROPE 12565/1) and are now a headache for the MEPs in charge of them: Marian Marinescu (EPP, Romaniaa), for the Single Sky, and Bogusław Liberadzki (S&D, Poland), for EASA.
More than 1,000 proposed amendments in total have been presented by the different political groups on these two texts and will have to be assessed in order to draw up the Parliament’s final position. Mr Marinescu assured that he would hold bilateral meetings with the shadow rapporteurs and draw up compromise amendments “within three weeks maximum”.
“I see no need to hurry, as the EU Council does not work very quickly”, he added, justifying his decision to consult the shadow rapporteurs individually in the first instance. “We’re not really under much time pressure," added Mr Liberadzki.
The first - and last - EU Council exchange on the subject dates back to the beginning of December (see EUROPE 12617/15). And the EU Council has so far been slow to move forward on this issue. However, Portugal, which currently holds the Presidency of the EU Council, aims to reach a political agreement (‘general approach’) on both proposals by the end of its term in July (see EUROPE B 12644A11).
These two proposals should be treated as a package, several rapporteurs again stressed, although the Portuguese Minister of Transport had already denied, at the end of January before the TRAN Committee, the rumours that Lisbon was planning to work separately on the revision of the ‘SES2+’ initiative and on the revision of the EASA initiative. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)