Brussels, 21/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council has adopted conclusions whereby it favourably welcomes the proposal of regulation presented by the Commission for the creation of a European civil aviation safety authority (EASA), which will be responsible for the certification of aeronautical products and monitoring of compliance (see yesterday's EUROPE pp.9/10).
In this text, the ministers accept the main lines of the institutional architecture proposed by the Commission for elaboration of the future European aeronautical standards. The roles would be shared out as follows: 1) the Community legislator must fix the targets for safety and adopt the essential requirements allowing such targets to be met; 2) the Commission must, through committee procedure, adopt the necessary rules for implementing these essential demands; 3) the Authority with decision-making powers at technical level must act as a European centre of expertise recognised internationally, responsible for safety in the context of its powers, and must assist the Commission in all its tasks; and 4) the Member States, whose participation at an appropriate level is assured in the certification and regulation process.
The ministers also note that the definition of "essential requirements" will begin gradually and as soon as possible with safety issues currently covered by the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), that is, the association of national aeronautics administrations from 33 European States, currently responsible for harmonising safety rules and environmental certification. The "essential requirements" will then be defined "possibly for other issues coming under air safety".
In order to approve its "common position" in June on the regulation, the Council entrusted its technical bodies with the task of ensuring, among other things, that the authority will have the powers needed for carrying out its responsibilities and that its legal responsibility will be clearly defined. Finally, the ministers, who had insisted on this point before accepting the principle of a European authority, call on the Commission to begin exploratory discussions with third country members of the JAA in order to involve them in the future Community system.