CELEX: 51998PC0123
Language: en
Date: 1998-03-04
Title: Amended proposal for a Council Directive establishing a safety assessment of third countries aircraft using Community airports

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                        Brussels, 04.03.1998
                                       COM(1998) 123 final
                                       97/0039 (SYN)
                    Amended proposal for a
                   COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
establishing a safety assessment of third countries aircraft
                  using Community airports
  (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 189 a (2)
                      of the EC-Treaty)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                  EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
On 17 February 1997 the Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Directive establishing a
safety assessment of third countries aircraft using Community airports.
On 19 November the European Parliament approved the proposal subject to certain amendments.
The Commission can accept amendments 1, 3 - 12, 14 and 15 since they are consistent with the
purpose of the proposed Directive, namely to contribute to the improvement of air safety by
inspecting third countries aircraft whenever there is a suspicion that they are not operating in
accordance with international safety standards, by collecting and disseminating information relating
to shortcomings, so that sufficient evidence can be established to decide on measures required to
ensure the safety of passengers, and by providing for measures to rectify identified shortcomings.
Parliament's amendments are essentially intended to specify a number of details in the proposed
provisions and the categories of aircraft which should be subject to ramp inspections, to publish
information on the results of these inspections and to provide for the drawing-up by the Commission
of a report on the operation of the Directive, possibly accompanied by proposals for revising it.
On the other hand, the Commission cannot accept amendment 13 calling for the deletion of Article
 12 of the Commission's proposal, since it takes the view that this article, which provides for the
imposition by the Member States of penalties for breaches of national provisions adopted pursuant to
the Directive, is needed in order to ensure effective compliance with Community legislation, e. g. ,
any refusal by a third country aircraft operator to be subjected to an inspection..
 ---pagebreak---                     Amended proposal for a
                   COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
establishing a safety assessment of third countries aircraft
                 using Community airports
                     3
 ---pagebreak---          Original text of the proposal (')                              Amended proposal
                                                Recital
Whereas the Resolution adopted by the                   Whereas the Resolutions adopted by the
European Parliament on 15 February 1996 and             European Parliament on 15 February 1996 and
the Council Conclusion of 11 March 1996                  17 July 1997* and the Council Conclusion of
both point to the need for the Community to              11 March 1996 both point to the need for the
take a more active stance and develop a                 Community to take a more active stance and
strategy to improve the safety of its citizens          develop a strategy to improve the safety of its
travelling by air or living near airports;              citizens travelling by air or living near airports;
                                                              OJC
                                               Article 1
The purpose of this Directive is to contribute          The purpose of this Directive is to contribute
to the improvement of air safety by checking            to the improvement of air safety by inspecting
third countries aircraft whenever there is              third countries • aircraft, their operations and
suspicion that they are not operated in                 their crew whenever there is suspicion that
accordance with international safety standards,         they are not operated in accordance with
by collecting and disseminating the                     international safety standards, by collecting
information related to shortcomings so that             and disseminating the information related to
sufficient evidence can be established to decide        shortcomings so that sufficient evidence can be
on measures required to ensure the safety ol            established to decide on measures required to
the travelling public; and by providing for             ensure the safety of travellers and all those
measures concerning the rectification oi                affected on the ground (especially the residents
identified shortcomings.                                of areas near airports): and by providing for
                                                        measures concerning the rectification ol
                                                        identified shortcomings.
O.J. C124of2i.04.1997page39
                                                            9
 ---pagebreak---                                        Article 3, definitions 4, 5 and 6
 International safety standards' means the                   International safety standards' means the
safety standards contained in the Annexes to                 safety standards contained in the Annexes tc
the Convention on International Civil Aviation               the Convention on International Civil Aviation
signed in Chicago on 7 December 1944 as in                   signed in Chicago on 7 December 1944 as in
force at the date of adoption of this Directive:             force at the time of the inspection:
'Ramp inspection' means the examination on                    'Ramp inspection' means the examination on
board and around an aircraft to check both the               board and around an aircraft to check both the
validity of the aircraft documents and those of              validity of the aircraft documents and those of
its crew and the apparent condition of the                   its crew and the apparent condition of the
aircraft and its equipment;                                  aircraft and its equipment,
'Third countries aircraft' means an          aircraft        'Third countries aircraft' means an aircraft
operated by an air carrier of which         the Air          operated by an air carrier of which the Air
Operator Certificate is delivered by        a State          Operator Certificate is delivered by a State
which is not a Member State                 of the           which is not a Member State of the
Community.                                                   Community or an aircraft which is not used or
                                                             operated under the control of a competent
                                                             authority of a Member State.
                                  Article 4( 1 ), introduction and first indent
 1. Competent Authorities of the Member                      1. The competent authorities of the Member
States shall collect any information deemed                  States shall collect any information deemed
useful for the fulfilment of the objective stated           useful for the fulfilment of the objective stated
in Article 1 of this directive, including:                  in Article 1 of this directive, including:
      important safety information accessible,                    important safety information accessible,
      especially, through                                         especially, through
      - passenger complaints,                                     - complaints by passengers, airport users
                                                                     and residents of areas near airports.
      - pilots reports,                                           - pilots reports,
      - maintenance organisation reports,                         - maintenance organisation reports,
      - incidents reports;                                        - incidents reports,
                                                                  - relevant      reports       from    other
                                                                     organizations, independent from the
                                                                     competent authorities of the Member
                                                                     States;
                                                                 s
 ---pagebreak---                                                  Article 5
  I    The competent authority of each Member              I     The competent authority of each Member
 State shall ensure that third countries aircraft         State shall ensure that third countries aircraft
 suspected       of     non-compliance        with        suspected        of      non-compliance      with
 international safety standards landing at any of         international safety standards landing at any of
 its airports is subject to ramp inspections as           its airports is subject to ramp inspections^
 follows:
                                                          la. In particular, the competent authorities
(a) all aircraft:                                         shall carry out ramp inspections on all aircraft
         showing signs of poor maintenance                       showing signs or where information has
         condition or with obvious damage or                     been received of poor maintenance
         defect,                                                 condition or obvious damage or defect;
         which have been reported to perform                     which have been reported to perform
         abnormal manoeuvres since entering                      abnormal manoeuvres since entering the
         the airspace of a Member State;                         airspace of a Member State,
         having been subjected to a previous                     having been subjected to a previous ramp
         ramp inspection which has revealed                      inspection which has revealed deficiencies
         deficiencies as long as such deficiencies               giving rise to serious concerns that the
         have not been corrected:                                aircraft   does     not    comply     with
                                                                international standards and where the
                                                                Member State is concerned that the
                                                                defects may not have been corrected:
                                                                where there is evidence that the
                                                                competent authorities of the country of
                                                                registration may not be exercising proper
(b)    10% of the movements, with a minimum                     safety oversight:
      of once a week, of:
      - an aircraft the operator of which has                   where information collected under Article
         been the subject of a standard report                  4 gives cause for concern about the
         according to Article 4.                                operator or where a previous ramp
                                                                inspection of an aircraft used by the same
                                                                operator has revealed deficiencies,
                                                                pending the adoption by the operator of
                                                                satisfactory arrangements for corrective
                                                                measures:
      an aircraft the operator of which or the                 whose operator or the country of the
      country of the operator of which has been                 operator has been the subject of a
      the subject of a decision according to                    decision according to Article 9. pending
      Article 9.                                               the adoption by the comptent authority of
                                                               that third country of satisfactory
                                                                arrangements for corrective measures.
 ---pagebreak---  2 The ramp inspection shall be performed                2. The ramp inspection shall be performed
according to the procedure described in Annex            according to the procedure described in Annex
2 and using a ramp inspection report form                2 and using a ramp inspection report form
containing at least the items described in the           containing at least the items described in the
form appended to this Annex. On completion               form appended to this Annex On completion
of the ramp inspection, the commander of the             of the ramp inspection, the commander of the
aircraft shall be provided with a copy of the            aircraft shall be informed of the contents of the
ramp inspection report.                                  ramp inspection report and if the report
                                                         disclose deficiencies, it shall be sent to the
                                                         operator of the aircraft and to the competent
                                                         authority of the country of registration.
 3 When executing a ramp inspection under                3     When executing a ramp inspection under
this Directive, the competent authority shall            this Directive, the competent authority shall
make all possible efforts to avoid an aircraft           make all possible efforts to avoid an aircraft
being unduly delayed.                                    being unduly delayed unless there are
                                                         reasonable grounds for a more thorough
                                                         investigation.
                                        Article 6, heading and (1)
            Exchange of information                         Exchange of information and cooperation
1     The competent authorities of the Member            1. Member States shall make provision for
States shall participate in a mutual exchange of         the exchange of information and cooperation
information.                                             between their competent authorities, the
                                                         competent authorities of all other Member
                                                         States and the Commission.
                                               Article 7(1)
1. The information exchanged in accordance                1. The information exchanged in accordance
with Article 6 shall be used for the sole                with Article 6 shall be used for the sole
purpose of this Directive and its access will be         purpose of this Directive and its access will be
limited to the participating competent                   limited to the participating competent
authorities and the Commission.                          authorities and the Commission without
                                                         prejudice to the provisions laid down herein
                                                         concerning the publication of groundings.
 ---pagebreak---                                               Article 8(2)
 2. In the event that an aircraft is grounded,          2. In the event that an aircraft is grounded,
the competent authority of the Member State             the competent authority of the Member State
 where the inspection took place shall                  where the inspection took place shall
 immediately inform the competent authorities           immediately inform in writing the operator and
 of the countries concerned.                            the competent authorities of the country of the
                                                        operator and of the State where the aircraft is
                                                        registered.
                                              Article 8(5)
                                                                            Article 8a
                                                                         Right of appeal
fL The owner or the operator of the aircraft            h     The owner or the operator of the aircraft
or his representative in the Member State               or his representative in the Member State
concerned shall have a right of appeal against          concerned shall have a right of appeal against a
a grounding decision taken by the competent             grounding decision taken by the competent
authority of the Member State. The lodging              authority of the Member State. The lodging of
of an appeal shall not cause in itself the              an appeal shall not cause in itself the
grounding to be suspended.                             grounding to be suspended.
                                                       Z     Member States shall establish and
                                                       maintain appropriate procedures for this
                                                       purpose in accordance with their national
                                                       legislation.
                                                       X The competent authority shall properly
                                                       inform the commander of the aircraft of the
                                                       right of appeal.
                               Article 9, first paragraph, first indent
      systematic ramp inspection and other                   systematic ramp inspection and other
      surveillance measures of a specific                    surveillance measures of a specific
      operator or of operators of a specific                 operator or of operators of a specific
     third country;                                          third country pending the adoption by the
                                                             operator or the competent authority of
                                                             that third country of satisfactory
                                                             arrangements for corrective measures:
 ---pagebreak---                                          Article 10(1)
I    Member States shall report to the              1 Member States shall report to the other
Commission the operational measures taken           Member States and to the Commission the
and the resources allocated to implement the        operational measures taken and the resources
requirements of Articles 4, 5 and 6.                allocated to implement the requirements of
                                                    Articles 4, 5 and 6.
                                       Article 10a (new)
                                                                       Article 10a
                                                               Publication of groundings
                                                   L Each competent authority shall as a
                                                    minimum publish quarterly information
                                                   available to the public concerning aircraft
                                                   grounded during the previous three-month
                                                   period.
                                                   Z     Such information shall also include all
                                                   aircraft, operators, countries of operators and
                                                   States of registration whose aircraft have been
                                                   detained more than once during the past 24
                                                   months.
                                                   3, The information published shall include in
                                                   particular the type of aircraft, the name and
                                                   country of the operator, the State of
                                                   registration, the reason for grounding and the
                                                   airport and date of grounding.
 ---pagebreak--- Article 13a (new)
                               Article 13a
                     Information report and revision
             No later than two years after the entry into
             force of this Directive, the Commission shall
             draw up a report on its application, taking into
             account inter alia developments in the
             European Union and in international fora.
             Such a report may be accompanied, if it is
             appropriate, by proposals for a revision of this
             Directive.
         y\o
 ---pagebreak---                                                                    ISSN 0254-1475
                                                           COM(98) 123 final
                                             DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                07 06     11
                                    Catalogue number : CB-C0-98-126-EN-C
                                                              ISBN 92-78-31708-X
 Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
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