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Rulemaking Cooperation Guidelines

for the

Federal Aviation Administration 

and the 

European Aviation Safety Agency

Background:

The Agreement between the United States of America and the European Union on 

cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety (the “Agreement”) requires that 

the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) and the European Aviation Safety 

Agency (“EASA”) develop and adopt procedures for regulatory cooperation in civil 

aviation safety and environmental testing and approvals.

The FAA and EASA (the “Participants”) have determined that they should actively 

promote mutual rulemaking cooperation to maintain and further improve the 

harmonisation of their rules within the scope of Articles 2.B and 6 of the Agreement. 

The Participants understand that harmonisation can best be achieved through effective 

communication during the definition and early stages of implementation of their

respective rulemaking programmes.

They also believe they should make the best use of scarce available resources to 

produce rules, and that cooperation in this field can be furthered without affecting 

their independence when deciding on the final rules they best see fit to fulfil their 

statutory obligations. Therefore, these Guidelines are not intended to create binding 

obligations under international law. Additionally, no provision of this document 

should be construed to impair the authority of the FAA or EASA to develop and 

promulgate aviation regulations within the limits of their enabling legislation and 

regulations.
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I. Objectives

1) These Guidelines establish the process through which the FAA and EASA intend 

to promote rulemaking co-operation in the early stages of the rulemaking process.

2) The objectives of this rulemaking cooperation arrangement are to:

i. Exchange rulemaking intentions and priorities of the Participants to align as 

much as possible their respective rulemaking programmes;

ii. Identify rulemaking initiatives of common interest that through regulatory 

collaboration would allow the FAA and EASA to: (i) avoid unnecessary 

divergence and duplication of work, (ii) maximize available resources, and 

(iii) further harmonisation.

iii. Define the corresponding working methods (as described under Article IV) to 

be followed by the Participants when executing tasks which have been 

identified as of ‘common interest’ under Article III;

II. Scope

1) Subject to Articles 2.B and 6 of the Agreement, the scope of these Guidelines 

includes rulemaking initiatives related to Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations 

and equivalent European Union rules for which proposals are developed by 

EASA, as well as to related acceptable means of compliance, certification 

specifications, advisory circulars, guidance material, and technical standard 

orders.

2) Activities related to the issuance of airworthiness directives, equivalent safety 

findings and special conditions for individual certification projects are outside 

the scope of this rulemaking cooperation arrangement.

III. Project Management

1) Management of the FAA and EASA in charge of rulemaking intend to meet at 

least twice a year in the April and November time frame, preferably by 

videoconference, to:

i. Review the functioning of this rulemaking cooperation arrangement.

ii. Discuss their current and future rulemaking programmes, including 

priorities thereof and related documentation. To that end, the FAA and 

EASA intend to exchange on a regular basis their respective 

rulemaking programmes, and information on their implementation in 

accordance with Attachment I of these Guidelines.
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iii. Identify rulemaking activities of common interest, and corresponding 

working methods.

iv. Discuss possible changes in the rulemaking programmes and working 

methods imposed by changing priorities. 

v. Discuss possible contentious issues.

2) The FAA and EASA intend to develop an agenda for these meetings at least three 

weeks before the meeting.

3) The FAA and EASA intend to maintain an up to date inventory of rulemaking

tasks that have been identified as being of common interest, including

identification of the focal points and information on the types of common actions

agreed to and their current status. Where appropriate, the FAA and EASA intend 

to make available to the public the list of rulemaking tasks of common interest and 

status of the work.

4) Representatives of the FAA and EASA responsible for rulemaking may attend the 

meetings of the joint coordination bodies established under the Agreement, such 

as the Certification Oversight Board, Joint Maintenance Coordination Board, and 

Bilateral Oversight Board to ensure, inter alia, that the discussions on rulemaking 

cooperation in the above bodies are consistent with the overall priorities identified 

under these Guidelines. The Participants intend that attendance at meetings at the 

Bilateral Oversight Board be in accordance with the provisions of the Board’s 

Internal Governing Procedures. 

IV. Implementation and Selection of Working Methods

1) The FAA and EASA intend to use one of the following working methods to 

execute rulemaking tasks, which the Participants have identified as “tasks of 

common interest,” with the objective to make best use of available resources and 

expertise on both sides. “Tasks of common interest” may include newly initiated 

rulemaking projects of either Participant affecting a precisely defined domain (e.g. 

all rulemaking projects affecting certification specifications for CS / Part 25 

airplanes). The selection of a working method should take into account the 

benefits for aviation safety and for the aviation sector, and complexity of the 

subject.

Working Method # 1 - EASA Takes the Lead

The general process is the EASA rulemaking procedure. 

This working method aims at giving the FAA sufficient involvement in the 

EASA rulemaking project to understand the content of the draft rule and to be 

able to contribute to this process as necessary to allow it, where appropriate, to 

launch an equivalent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) or take other 

equivalent rulemaking decision.
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The EASA focal point should lead the rulemaking process in regular 

coordination with the FAA focal point.

The EASA focal point should ensure that communication takes place for the 

following phases of the EASA process:

- When drafting the terms of reference of the task;

- When deciding changes in the terms of reference;

- Prior to the publication of the Notice of Proposed Amendment 

(“NPA”).

Working Method #2 - FAA Takes the Lead

The general process is outlined in the FAA Office of Rulemaking’s

Rulemaking Manual.

This working method aims at giving EASA sufficient involvement in the 

FAA’s rulemaking project to understand the content of the NPRM and be able 

to contribute to this process as necessary to allow it, where appropriate, to 

launch an equivalent NPA or take other equivalent rulemaking decision.

As appropriate, the FAA focal point should lead the rulemaking process in 

regular coordination with the EASA focal point.

The FAA focal point should ensure that communication takes place for the 

following phases of the FAA process:

- When developing issue papers in preparation for drafting the 

Rulemaking Action Plan (“RAP”);

- When selecting the membership of an ARAC (“Aviation 

Rulemaking Advisory Committee”) or Aviation Rulemaking 

Committee (“ARC”) to allow EASA participation;

- During the deliberations of an ARAC or ARC up to and including 

publication of the final reports;

- When deciding changes to the scope of the rulemaking project prior 

to the development of the RAP.

Working Method #3 – Authorities Cooperation

Under this method, the FAA and EASA intend to develop their rulemaking 

projects separately, but concurrently (to the extent practicable). However, 

as appropriate, the FAA and EASA focal points may follow the process 
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described in Working Methods #1 and #2 in sharing information during 

concurrent development of the rule.

2) The Participants may exchange technical experts, at their own cost. Exchanges 

of personnel should be addressed in separate written arrangements between the 

Participants. 

3) For each task identified as a “task of common interest” the Participants intend to 

assign a focal point responsible for coordinating the work.

V. FAA Ex Parte Communications

To the extent that the FAA engages in any ex parte communications with EASA after 

approval of the RAP until publication of the final rule and receives significant 

information and argument from EASA respecting the merits of the proposed rule, the 

FAA will provide a summary of those discussions in the rulemaking docket. 

VI. Work Plans

1) For each rulemaking project selected, EASA and FAA intend to develop a work 

plan. Each work plan should describe the following:

i. Working method;

ii. Technical points of contact;

iii. Project implementation schedule and meeting dates;

iv. Description of the technical documents that either the FAA or EASA 

intends to make available for review and discussion. These may include 

jointly developed issue papers, analyses, research results and other 

technical documents of a non-confidential nature, except that the FAA and 

EASA, if their national procedures or rules so require, may decide not to 

make available copies of documents, such as in the case of the FAA, the 

RAP, or the NPRM prior to publication in the Federal Register;

v. Participation in work groups, e.g. ARAC and ARCs; and

vi. Any other cooperative activities mutually determined by EASA and the 

FAA to be beneficial.

VII. Release of Data

Except as required by applicable law, neither the FAA nor EASA should disclose to 

any third party confidential or pre-decisional rulemaking information received from 

the other Participant as a result of that Participant’s involvement in any rulemaking 

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Attachment 1

Rulemaking Programmes

Documents to be provided by EASA:

Type of document Frequency of 

exchanges

Focal Point

Monthly rulemaking 

scoreboard once a month athanassios.tziolas@easa.europa.eu

4-year rulemaking 

programme

annually athanassios.tziolas@easa.europa.eu

Documents to be provided by FAA:

Type of document Frequency of exchanges Focal Point

Rule status reports

AC and Orders1status 

once a month

once a month

4-year rulemaking lookahead annually

 1 For the FAA, ACs and Orders are promulgated by the specific Line of Business and not by the 

Office of Rulemaking.