Brussels, 14/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Extraordinary Council to take stock of the safety measures taken by the Member States after the attacks on the United States, the European transport ministers were to adopt, on Friday evening, a joint declaration calling for new safety norms to be adopted within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). They were also to announce the creation of a special group responsible for identifying organisational needs in order to ensure consistency of safety measures to be taken and to prepare possible legislative initiatives. The ministers were also to restate their solidarity with the American government, and the Secretary of State for Transport in particular.
"For the first time, commercial passenger aircraft have been used in a terrorist attack", the Belgian Transport Minister and President of the Transport Council, Isabelle Durant, stressed on Friday morning, presenting the stakes to the Extraordinary Council. This event demonstrates the need to amend the Chicago Convention relating to international civil aviation, she pointed out. In a note on air safety presented to the ministers on Friday, the Council Presidency recalled that Annex 17 of the Chicago Convention sets out standards and practices relating to air safety, but that implementation of these standards varied from one Member State to the next, and that they were limited to international flights alone. At European level, the European Civil Aviation Convention (ECAC) has published best practices to create a new uniform level of protection in Europe and to set up an airport audit mechanism of common security measures, the note recalls.
The ICAO's General Assembly will be held from 24 September to 5 October, while the ECAC has convened a special expert meeting on 20/21 September. After the recent events, Isabelle Durant commented that the timetable meant the EU's position on issues of safety and security had to be brought forward. The Council Presidency proposed to European Ministers that in their joint declaration they call for a review of the Chicago Convention to incorporate standards and recommendations to deal with the new types of danger; set up an audit system at the ICAO for airport security measures and national safety programmes, along the lines of the system at the ECAC; increasing the ICAO's powers in terms of security by means of functional delegations in regional aviation organisations; and adopting One Stop Security multinational agreements including a quality control system.
Isabelle Durant told the Council that the objective was to identify the areas where they wanted standards to be developed at ICAO level with a view to compulsory measures for the 187 ICAO member states. The instruments and the means for greater cooperation between the states in question would also have to be outlined, irrespective of the standards defined at the ICAO, by using the ECAC in particular and by setting a timetable, added the Minister. "I cannot prejudge the reticence that some Member States may have on issues affecting internal affairs, but I think that there is a real determination to define a common European framework for the ICAO", she added.
The ministers were also to take stock of the measures taken for controlling passengers and luggage, assessing the need to maintain or to amend these measures, and envisaging provisions to be taken in the longer term. Since 11th September, the Member States have decided to suspend links towards the United States and high-risk destinations such as Israel and the Lebanon, to adopt security checks and to set in place a crisis and surveillance unit for the whole of Europe, recalled Isabelle Durant. "We cannot draw up a detailed list of the measures to be taken, as it would be very negative to improvise on this theme during a three-hour meeting", she remarked, before beginning work.