Article 1 Scope and objective
1. Within the framework of the Community's overall strategy to establish and maintain a high uniform level of civil aviation safety in Europe, this Directive introduces a harmonised approach to the effective enforcement of international safety standards within the Community by harmonising the rules and procedures for ramp inspections of third-country aircraft landing at airports located in the Member States. 2. This Directive shall be without prejudice to the Member States' right to carry out inspections not covered by this Directive and to ground, ban, or impose conditions on any aircraft landing at their airports in accordance with Community and international law. 3. State aircraft, as defined in the Chicago Convention, and aircraft of a maximum take-off weight of less than 5 700 kg not engaged in commercial air transport are excluded from the scope of this Directive. 4. The application of this Directive to the airport of Gibraltar is understood to be without prejudice to the respective legal positions of the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom with regard to the dispute over sovereignty over the territory in which the airport is situated. 5. The application of this Directive to Gibraltar airport shall be suspended until the arrangements in the Joint Declaration made by the Foreign Ministers of the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom on 2 December 1987 have come into operation. The Governments of Spain and the United Kingdom will inform the Council of such date of entry into operation.
Article 2 Definitions
For the purpose of this Directive: (a) ‘grounding’means the formal prohibition of an aircraft to leave an airport, and the taking of such steps as are necessary to detain it; (b) ‘international safety standards’means the safety standards contained in the Chicago Convention and its Annexes, as in force at the time of the inspection; (c) ‘ramp inspection’means the examination of third-country aircraft in accordance with Annex II; (d) ‘third-country aircraft’means an aircraft which is not used or operated under the control of a competent authority of a Member State.
Article 3 Collection of information
Member States shall put in place a mechanism to collect any information deemed useful for the fulfilment of the objective stated in Article 1, including: (a) important safety information accessible, in particular, through: — pilot reports, — maintenance organisation reports, — incident reports, — other organisations, independent from the competent authorities of the Member States, — complaints; important safety information accessible, in particular, through: — pilot reports, — maintenance organisation reports, — incident reports, — other organisations, independent from the competent authorities of the Member States, — complaints; (b) information on action taken subsequent to a ramp inspection, such as: — aircraft grounded, — aircraft or operator banned from the Member State concerned, — corrective action required, — contacts with the operator's competent authority; information on action taken subsequent to a ramp inspection, such as: — aircraft grounded, — aircraft or operator banned from the Member State concerned, — corrective action required, — contacts with the operator's competent authority; (c) follow-up information concerning the operator, such as: — corrective action implemented, — recurrence of discrepancy. follow-up information concerning the operator, such as: — corrective action implemented, — recurrence of discrepancy. This information shall be kept, using a standard report form containing the items described, in the form set out in Annex I.
Article 4 Ramp inspection
1. Each Member State shall put in place the appropriate means to ensure that third-country aircraft suspected of non-compliance with international safety standards landing at any of its airports open to international air traffic shall be subject to ramp inspections. In implementing such procedures, particular attention shall be given by the competent authority to aircraft: — where information has been received indicating poor maintenance condition or obvious damage or defects; — which have been reported as performing abnormal manoeuvres since entering the airspace of a Member State such as to give rise to serious safety concerns; — in respect of which a previous ramp inspection has revealed deficiencies which give rise to serious concern that the aircraft does not comply with international safety 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 safety oversight; or — where information collected under Article 3 gives cause for concern about the operator or where a previous ramp inspection of an aircraft used by the same operator has revealed deficiencies. Each Member State shall put in place the appropriate means to ensure that third-country aircraft suspected of non-compliance with international safety standards landing at any of its airports open to international air traffic shall be subject to ramp inspections. In implementing such procedures, particular attention shall be given by the competent authority to aircraft: — where information has been received indicating poor maintenance condition or obvious damage or defects; — which have been reported as performing abnormal manoeuvres since entering the airspace of a Member State such as to give rise to serious safety concerns; — in respect of which a previous ramp inspection has revealed deficiencies which give rise to serious concern that the aircraft does not comply with international safety 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 safety oversight; or — where information collected under Article 3 gives cause for concern about the operator or where a previous ramp inspection of an aircraft used by the same operator has revealed deficiencies. 2. Member States may establish rules in order to carry out ramp inspections in accordance with a spot-check procedure in the absence of any particular suspicion, provided that such rules comply with Community and international law. Such a procedure shall, however, be carried out in a non-discriminatory way. 3. Member States shall ensure that appropriate ramp inspections and other surveillance measures as decided within the framework of Article 8(3) will be implemented. 4. The ramp inspection shall be performed in accordance with the procedure described in Annex II and using a ramp inspection report form containing at least the items described in the form set out in Annex II. On completion of the ramp inspection, the commander of the aircraft or a representative of the aircraft operator shall be informed of the ramp inspection findings and, if significant defects have been found, the report shall be sent to the operator of the aircraft and to the competent authorities concerned. 5. When performing a ramp inspection under this Directive, the competent authority concerned shall make all possible efforts to avoid an unreasonable delay of the aircraft inspected.
Article 5 Exchange of information
1. The competent authorities of the Member States shall participate in a mutual exchange of information. Such information shall, at the request of a competent authority, include a list of airports of the Member State concerned that are open to international air traffic with an indication, for each calendar year, of the number of ramp inspections performed and the number of movements of third-country aircraft at each airport on that list. 2. All standard reports referred to in Article 3 and the ramp inspection reports referred to in Article 4(4) shall be made available without delay to the Commission and, at their request, to the competent authorities of the Member States and to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). 3. Whenever a standard report shows the existence of a potential safety threat, or a ramp inspection report shows that an aircraft does not comply with international safety standards and may pose a potential safety threat, the report will be communicated without delay to each competent authority of the Member States and the Commission.
Article 6 Protection and dissemination of information
1. Member States shall, in accordance with their national legislation, take the necessary measures to ensure appropriate confidentiality of the information received by them under Article 5. They shall use this information solely for the purpose of this Directive. 2. The Commission shall publish yearly an aggregated information report available to the public and the industry stakeholders containing an analysis of all information received in accordance with Article 5. That analysis shall be simple and easy to understand and shall indicate whether there exists an increased safety risk to air passengers. In the analysis, the source of that information shall be disidentified. 3. Without prejudice to the public’s right of access to the Commission’s documents as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the Commission shall adopt, on its own initiative, measures for the dissemination to interested parties of the information referred to in paragraph 1 and the associated conditions. Those measures, which may be general or individual, shall be based on the need: — to provide persons and organisations with the information they need to improve civil aviation safety, — to limit the dissemination of information to what is strictly required for the purposes of its users, in order to ensure appropriate confidentiality of that information, Without prejudice to the public’s right of access to the Commission’s documents as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the Commission shall adopt, on its own initiative, measures for the dissemination to interested parties of the information referred to in paragraph 1 and the associated conditions. Those measures, which may be general or individual, shall be based on the need: — to provide persons and organisations with the information they need to improve civil aviation safety, — to limit the dissemination of information to what is strictly required for the purposes of its users, in order to ensure appropriate confidentiality of that information, The individual measures shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 10(3). The general measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 10(4). 4. Whenever information concerning aircraft deficiencies is given voluntarily, the ramp inspection reports referred to in Article 4(4) shall be disidentified regarding the source of such information.
Article 7 Grounding of aircraft
1. Where non-compliance with international safety standards is clearly hazardous to flight safety, measures should be taken by the aircraft operator to rectify the deficiencies before flight departure. If the competent authority performing the ramp inspection is not satisfied that corrective action will be carried out before the flight, it shall ground the aircraft until the hazard is removed and shall immediately inform the competent authorities of the operator concerned and of the State of registration of the aircraft. 2. The competent authority of the Member State performing the ramp inspection may, in coordination with the State responsible for the operation of the aircraft concerned or the State of registration of the aircraft, prescribe the necessary conditions under which the aircraft can be allowed to fly to an airport at which the deficiencies can be corrected. If the deficiency affects the validity of the certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft, the grounding may only be lifted if the operator obtains permission from the State or States which will be overflown on that flight.
Article 8 Safety improvement and implementation measures
1. Member States shall report to the Commission on the operational measures taken to implement the requirements of Articles 3, 4 and 5. On the basis of the information collected under paragraph 1, the Commission may (a) in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 10(2), take any appropriate measures to facilitate the implementation of Articles 3, 4 and 5, such as: — define the format for the storage and dissemination of data, — create or support the appropriate bodies for managing or operating the tools necessary for the collection and exchange of information, in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 10(2), take any appropriate measures to facilitate the implementation of Articles 3, 4 and 5, such as: — define the format for the storage and dissemination of data, — create or support the appropriate bodies for managing or operating the tools necessary for the collection and exchange of information, (b) detail conditions for conducting ramp inspections, including systematic ones, and establish the list of information to be collected. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 10(4). 3. On the basis of the information received under Articles 3, 4 and 5, and in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10(2), a decision may be taken on appropriate ramp inspection and other surveillance measures, in particular those of a specific operator or of operators of a specific third country, pending the adoption by the competent authority of that third country of satisfactory arrangements for corrective measures. 4. The Commission may take any appropriate measures to cooperate with and assist third countries to improve their aviation safety oversight capabilities.
Article 10 
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the committee set up by Article 12 of Regulation (EEC) No 3922/91. 2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 3 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. 4. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a(1) to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof. 5. The Committee may furthermore be consulted by the Commission on any other matter concerning the application of this Directive.
Article 11 Implementation
Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 30 April 2006. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. When Member States adopt these measures, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such a reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States.
Article 12 
The Commission may amend the Annexes to this Directive. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 10(4).
Article 13 Report
By 30 April 2008 the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of this Directive, and in particular on Article 9, which, inter alia, takes into account developments in the Community and in international fora. The report may be accompanied by proposals for an amendment of this Directive.
Article 14 Entry into force
This Directive shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
Article 15 
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.