WRITTEN QUESTION E-0430/01

by Raffaele Lombardo (PPE-DE) to the Council

(20 February 2001)

Subject: Regulation of civil and military air traffic in Europe

There have recently been a number of extremely serious cases of military aircraft encroaching on civilian air space over Italy. In view of the very real danger posed by breaches of the rules in force on safety distances and, more generally, by the lack of supranational rules governing air navigation, and in order to ensure the safety of users and to reconcile this with the needs of the military,

can the Council say:

- whether it intends, as a matter of urgency, to improve the management of European air traffic through the application of Community competition law principles, thus ensuring the creation of a single European sky, in line with the wishes expressed by the Commission in its communication of 1 December 1999 to the Council and the European Parliament, and to introduce at the same time a strict and rigorously enforced system of priorities under which the safety of civilian flights takes precedence over the requirements of military exercises;

- whether it considers it appropriate to introduce measures aimed at giving effect to the undertakings contained in the Council Resolution of 17 November 1995 on the problem of congestion and the air traffic crisis facing Europe;

- whether it considers it necessary to adopt provisions aimed at speeding up and making more effective the procedures for implementing in Community and national law the Eurocontrol standards, most recently laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) No 2082/2000(1) and, at the same time, to promote more innovative Community-based forms of cooperation;

- whether it intends to lay down, not merely by means of a directive but also of regulations, the minimum requirements for communication, surveillance and automated assistance systems for air traffic control in Europe?

(1) OJ L 254, 9.10.2000, p. 1.

Reply

(20 November 2001)

Safety of civil aviation is a priority in the Community air transport policy and the Council attaches great concern to this issue. As an institution, it is not directly engaged in military aviation.

As regards the project of the European Single Sky, the Council has been regularly informed about the work of the High Level Group chaired by Mrs de Palacio, Vice-President of the Commission, and whose report was published in December last year. It notes that this work involved all aviation actors and in particular civil and military authorities.

The European Council, at its meeting in Stockholm last March, reaffirmed its intention of setting up the European Single Sky and indicated that it expected to make further progress on this issue in time for its meeting in June at Göteborg. On 15 and 16 June 2001 the European Council recalled the importance of the European Single Sky inititative and noted that contacts are under way between the relevant Member States on the question of its territorial application. It hopes that these contacts will produce early agreement. The Commission intends to bring forward detailed proposals with a view to achieving a Single Sky by 2004.

The Council is now ready to give the requested priority to the examination of legislative proposals expected from the Commission and covering a large part of the concerns expressed by the Honourable Member.

The Council is aware that further improvement of the situation could be achieved once the Community has become a member of Eurocontrol and expresses the hope that the requirements to this effect be met as soon as possible. Furthermore it is convinced that an additional important element for the aviation policy will be the Regulation for the establishment of a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) which is currently under examination and concerns, in particular, standardisation and certification of aeronautical products.