Brussels, 14/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 9 November, French transport minister Dominique Perben submitted a memorandum to the European Commission on air safety, listing 19 ways of boosting air safety in Europe. The document might form the basis of discussion at the upcoming 5 December Transport Council.
French transport minister Dominique Perben suggests tightening up inspections of aircraft from countries outside the EU, established in 1996 under the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) programme, calling on Member States to make stricter inspections. France has a good track record here, carrying out 1640 inspections in 2004, 35% of the EU25 total, expected to rise to more than 2000 inspections a year from next year onwards. Dominique Perben wants the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to publish information about how countries comply with their inspection duties and to better target its auditing on risk factors. France also wants cooperation programmes with countries which are having trouble meeting their obligations but are in good faith, to be supported by the International Funding Facility for Aircraft Safety (IFFAS), a non-profit funding body set up by the ICAO. The French transport minister wants a climate of confidence to be rebuilt, with greater information for passengers and greater transparency. To this end, the minister wants the EU's air passenger information regulation to come into force as soon as possible to enable an early warning system to be established and a common European blacklist of unsafe airlines. France wants Member States to follow two French ideas, namely to publish a list of authorised non-EU airlines; and establishing a high quality airline label to identify safe airlines in the EU and elsewhere in the world to ensure better safety guarantees for travellers and travel agencies. The Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for Transport, Jacques Barrot, will be unveiling new proposals to the College of Commissioners on 15 November to beef up the powers of the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) when it comes to regulating flights and authorisation for flight crews. France believes giving the EASA greater powers could be a help and wants it to set up an EASA safety certificate for airlines from outside the EU. The idea is for this to be a technical certificate. If EASA and the Member States decided to suspend the certificate, this would mean the airline being banned from all EU airports. The certificate would have to be granted without prejudice to the power to grant air traffic rights, which would remain under Member States' responsibility. Dominique Perben calls for a clear division of labour between the EASA and national authorities, recommending the signing of a multi-annual contract setting out the EASA's strategic objectives and the European Commission's financial obligations.
The French transport minister's memorandum forms part of a European drive to increase air safety. Alongside extending the EASA's powers, the European Commission is expected to unveil a new system on 17 November along with Eurocontrol called SESAR. This is a new generation of air traffic control systems. MEPs are expected to debate a report by French EPP-ED MEP Christine de Veyrac on Tuesday evening on passenger information on the actual air carrier for their flight and the drawing up of a common European blacklist of unsafe airlines (MEPs are expected to vote on this on Wednesday).