Luxembourg, 18/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - This week, the Transport Council reached a political agreement over the creation of a European Air safety Agency that will be responsible for approving aeronautical equipment. Its common position should be formally adopted by the next Council of 7 December, then handed to the European Parliament. A compromise over the last issues in suspense was reached in the context of the discussion on measures to take to enhance air safety which was held in Luxembourg (see EUROPE of 18 October, p.9 and 17 October, p.10). France, which was concerned at the sole use of English for the publication of certain weighty standardisation documents agreed to a declaration of principle, which stipulates that in future they should ensure that linguistic diversity is respected. The Council also adopted a declaration that freezes the issue of the appeals jurisdiction, while awaiting ratification of the Nice Treaty: appeals for certifications issued by the EASA will be initially lodged with the European Court of Justice as is the case for the trade mark office of Alicante, then "if and when", the Nice Treaty is ratified, appeals could be lodged before specialised chambers provided for by the Nice Treaty to take the weight off the Court of Justice.
The question of the Agency's headquarters should be dealt with at the Laeken Summit, in the framework of discussions on the headquarters of different European agencies (food safety, marine safety, etc.). For now, Cologne in Germany and Hoofdoorp (Schipol) in the Netherlands are the two candidates.
Demanded now for a long time by the European aeronautical industry, the EASA will have in Europe competences comparable to that of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States. It will have an annual budget of some 28.7 million euro and staff of some 150 when totally operational.