REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the delegation of power under Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation, amending Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulations (EC) No 1321/2007 and (EC) No 1330/2007
Date: 2019-10-15
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: EU control, accident prevention, air safety, air traffic, civil aviation, delegated legislation, delegation of power, exchange of information, powers of the institutions (EU), transport accident

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 15.10.2019  COM(2019) 465 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the delegation of power under Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation, amending Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulations (EC) No 1321/2007 and (EC) No 1330/2007  
 
 
1.  INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EU) No 376/2014  aims to  improve aviation  safety by ensuring that relevant 
safety  information  relating  to  civil  aviation  is  reported,  collected,  stored,  protected, 
exchanged, disseminated and analysed. The sole objective of occurrence reporting is the 
prevention of accidents and incidents. 

Article  7(6)  of  this  Regulation  lays  down  that  the  Commission  shall  be  empowered  to 
adopt delegated acts  in  accordance with  Article 18 to  define the common European risk 
classification scheme (ERCS).  

In addition, Article 17 of the Regulation says that the Commission shall be empowered to 
adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 18 in order to:  

(a)  update  the  list  of  mandatory  data  fields  in  occurrence  reports  laid  down  in  Annex  I 
where,  in  the  light  of  experience  gained  in  the  application  of  this  Regulation,  changes 
prove necessary in order to improve aviation safety;  

(b)  update  the  request  for  European  Central  Repository1  information  form  provided  in 
Annex III, to take account of experience gained and of new developments;  

(c) align any of the Annexes with the ECCAIRS2 software and the ADREP3 taxonomy, as 
well as with legal acts adopted by the Union and with international agreements. 

In this context, Article 18(2) of the Regulation states that the Commission shall draw up a 
report to the European Parliament and to the Council in respect of the delegation of power 
conferred on it. 

2.  EMPOWERMENT TO ADOPT DELEGATED ACTS 

European Risk Classification Scheme (ERCS) 

Although  Article  7(6)  of  the  Regulation  is  as  such  the  legal  basis  for  the  delegated  act 
defining the ECRS, it is important also to bear in mind paragraphs 5 and 7 of this Article. 

Before the delegated act “defining” the ERCS is adopted under paragraph 6 of Article 7, 
the ERCS needs  to  be “developed” in  accordance with  paragraph 5 of the same Article. 
Furthermore, the ERCS, as defined in a delegated act, is to be implemented in accordance 
with  arrangements  established  by  means  of  an  implementing  act  adopted  in  accordance 

1 European Central Repository (ECR): The repository to store all occurrence reports collected in the Union. It is 
managed by the Commission 
2 ECCAIRS: European Co-ordination Centre for Accident and Incident Reporting Systems.  
3 ADREP: Accident/Incident Data Reporting. This system is operated and maintained by ICAO. The ADREP 
system operates using ECCAIRS software platform. ICAO stands for International Civil Aviation Organisation. 
It is a UN specialized agency, established by States in 1944 to manage the administration and governance of the 
Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). 

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with  Article  7(7).  In  other  words,  the  eventual  implementation  of  the  ERCS  follows  a 
series of successive, but closely related steps.  

The ERCS development was concluded on 15 May 2017 as per the target date set out in 
Article 7(5).  

Works  for  the  subsequent  adoption  of  the  delegated  act,  defining  the  ERCS,  have  been 
commenced,  but  have  so  far  not  been  concluded.  It  appeared  to  the  Commission  that  it 
would be preferable with a view to  achieving a  consistent set  of rules, in the interest  of 
successful implementation of the scheme, to prepare the delegated act under paragraph 6 
in parallel to the implementing act(s) provided for in paragraph 7, and to adopt them at the 
same time. 

Consequently, the delegation conferred in  Article 7(6) of Regulation  (EU) No 376/2014 
has so far not been exercised. 

Amendment of the Annexes  

Article  17  of  the  Regulation  empowers  the  Commission  to  adopt  delegated  acts,  as 
appropriate,  to  amend  the  Annexes  of  the  Regulation.  While  it  is  expected  that  such 
amendments  will  be  needed  in  due  course  in  view  of  experience  gained  and  of  new 
developments  associated  with  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation,  it  has  been 
determined  that  so  far  the  content  of  the  Annexes,  as  they  stand  today,  is  still  fit  for 
purpose.  

Consequently, the empowerment to adopt delegated acts, for the purposes of amending the 
Annexes, has so far not been exercised.  

3.  CONCLUSIONS 

For the reasons outlined in the preceding section, the Commission has so far not exercised 
its  powers  to  adopt  delegated  acts  as  provided  for  in  the  aforementioned  articles.  The 
adoption  of  such  acts  remains  necessary  in  respect  of  Article  7(6)  and  may  become 
necessary in respect of Article 17. 

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