Brussels, 26/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Member State airline security experts' committee met up on 26 May at the request of the European Commission in an effort to prevent new action being too disparate with regard to bans on flights from third countries, such as the Turkish airline Onur Air. Last Tuesday the three Member States that took flight suspension measures against Onur Aur, France, Germany and the Netherlands (EUROPE 8950) decided to gradually lift these measures. However, they did maintain reinforced controls on the company and set up close cooperation between them by exchanging the results of their inspection, a form of coordination in which the Commission wants all Member States to get involved.
The Commission announced that it was going to propose to experts the setting up of an emergency coordination procedure in the framework of the “SAFA” directive (on third country aircraft safety when using Community aerodromes) by way of a committee created by this directive. In the Onur Air case, it was above all the weakness of banning or suspension mechanisms at European flight levels which led the above-mentioned countries to make decisions without any concertation. Directive 2004/36 includes such a mechanism but the procedure is long and therefore inefficient in emergencies (it allow for the extension of restriction or banning measures on traffic as imposed by an EU Member State in all Member States but only after the agreement of the regulatory committee). The Commission has shown a preference for using the draft regulation of 17 February 2005 on passenger information, transport identity and the “black box” than that included in the draft regulation.