JUSTIN WASTNAGE / BARCELONA
Single Sky needs deal to allow civil/armed forces co-operation details to be worked out
European Union (EU) members are to establish a separate agreement on the military use of European airspace ahead of a 5 December meeting of the continent's transport ministers, which is scheduled to sign off the Single European Sky deal. Without an agreement on military use of airspace, Single European Sky implementation, involving a major restructure of upper airspace across the continent in 2004, could not proceed.
The European Parliament gave its approval to proceed with European Single Sky in September (Flight International, 10-16 September). The draft has to be adopted by the member states before it can begin its ascent into law.
Co-operation between military and civilian airspace users had threatened to delay Single Sky implementation, said the EC's director for air transport Michel Ayral at a European Commission energy and transport conference in Barcelona last week, but an ad hoc agreement has been reached which will allow civil/military co-operation details to be worked out in parallel with the reorganisation of civilian upper airspace, he says.
Initially, leading military member states, including Germany and the UK, had proposed an inter-governmental agreement covering military flights, to run in parallel to the Single Sky. This option was rejected for being "too tough to negotiate and against the Amsterdam treaty", says Ayral. Any inter-governmental deal would also require separate approval from each member state, which could delay implementation further.
Under voting rules set in 1997, civilian transport issues can be legislated jointly by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, but foreign and defence policies require each member state to enter into a new treaty. EC officials are concerned that including any definition of military airspace into a civilian proposal risks setting a dangerous precedent.
Instead, ministers will agree to a "pragmatic" approach to the problem, says Ayral, which would create a formal framework for engaging with the military, as a footnote to the main Single Skies agreement. The framework would set out basic military needs, including low-level flights, no-fly zones and ab initio training corridors, which would then be dealt with on an ad hoc basis between national air forces.
Once approved, the proposal's progress through parliament for its second reading would be "assisted" and should be adopted by all member states by 2004, says Ayral. "Political agreement was reached, despite negative reactions a year ago, but there's a lot of technical work to do," he says.
Source: Flight International