Brussels, 28/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The joint Swiss-EU committee on aviation transport, during its fourth meeting since the enactment of the bilateral accord on aviation transport, on November 25 in Brussels, essentially discussed: the participation of Switzerland in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), its integration into a Single European Sky and the transposal into Swiss legislation of a series of technical European regulations.
Concerning the «first package», namely Swiss participation in EASA, Raymond Cron, director of the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) representing the Swiss delegation within the committee, affirms that it is «very important for Switzerland to participate». «It is unthinkable that we would remain outside, as this agency is going to influence the development of European civil aviation, particularly on the security front ». After a presentation to Parliament, this participation must be approved by the National Council during its winter session, and the European Commission must propose its approval to the Council of the EU. «Our aim is to reach this objective in the course of the second quarter of 2006 », specifies M. Cron. Concerning the Single Sky, Switzerland has already expressed its willingness to participate and hopes to adopt the necessary regulations during the course of next year. « Imagine a single European sky with a hole in the map just at the level of Switzerland ! », exclaimed M. Cron. The committee also adopted a whole series of European technical regulations that Switzerland must integrate soon into its legislation. This involves in particular: - regulation on passenger compensation in case of refused embarkation or the major delay of a flight, put into effect in the Union last February: - the directive on aviation safety of non-member states of the EU (Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft, SAFA) that aims above all to standardise the planning and inspection of aircraft. The question of a black list of airlines presenting flaws in terms of safety was also broached. «In this domain, Switzerland wants to act in parallel with Europe and will have the same strategy. At the moment this involves defining the procedures», M. Cron indicated.