Brussels, 23/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - In order to increase the safety of air travel, a black list of banned companies could be drawn up (as the United Kingdom has already done), but in order to bring any European black list into being, "common criteria for such a ban would have to be established"; however, this is "not yet the case". This was told to Le Monde newspaper on 23 August by Michel Wachenheim, director general for a civil aviation in France, on the intention of European Commissioner Jacques Barrot to draw up a blacklist of unsafe European airlines in the near future (see EUROPE 9009 on the proposal to draw up "common criteria for these companies to be identified", under the aegis of the Commission, in order to make it easier to draw up such a list). Mr Wachenheim notes that for its part, France has "opted for the creation of a blue label (Label bleu) to be awarded to all companies which agree to undergo a voluntary quality and safety audit", and adds that such a label "would not go against a European black list".
Mr Wachenheim also points out that at the meeting of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) in September and October 2004 in Montréal, France supported the adoption "of an early warning system which will bring greater transparency" and that this system has just been notified to the Member States of ICAO. This mechanism provides that if ICAO notes that "a country is not respecting its commitments regularly, official information will be communicated to all members", each of which can then "decide on the action to be taken, which could go as far as banning the companies in question from these countries". ICAO " has a lot of red tape to deal with, it will hear from 188 States , each of which has a vote", Mr Wachenheim added.
The Parliamentary report of Odile Saugues ("40 proposals to improve the safety of passengers' air travel"), which dates back to July 2004, states that the safety audit carried out by ICAO over 10 years in 181 countries showed that "111 countries presented shortfalls and only about 30 had done anything to improve the situation". On this issue, Mr Wachenheim replied: "it is true that between 10 and 15% of the States which were audited, or around 30, were not living up to their commitments. And for about 15 of them, these shortcomings were considered very serious". Ms Saugues told the Journal du dimanche of 21 August that her report had been "buried", but Mr Wachenheim replied: "this report, which is of a very high quality, was not buried. For a year now, there have been actions at international, European and French level. But there is still progress to be made".