Eurocontrol is to present "a concrete proposal" for a European rule-making and enforcement body to its council on 13 October, according to Jan van den Assem, the agency's head of stakeholder relations.
The European air navigation organisation's council was originally due to consider the proposal of granting Eurocontrol regulatory powers at its meeting in July, but postponed the discussions until a council meeting taking place in October (Flight International, 21-27 July).
The proposed regulatory process, which would run along the lines of the US notice of proposed rulemaking, would give Eurocontrol the much-needed power to enforce air traffic management (ATM) requirements.
Eurocontrol has conducted extensive work on the proposal. The speed of implementation will depend on what powers the council decides upon, according to van den Assem.
"If they decide on an administrative process to improve the co-ordination of ATM programme implementation, it could be introduced relatively easily," he says, "but, if they decide on a rule-making process involving binding decisions, it will require a political decision to be made by ministers."
Europe's transport ministers are to meet next January, according to van den Assem and, with the air traffic control system in central Europe reaching capacity, all participants must commit to capacity enhancing measures.
In particular, the industry needs to commit to Eurocontrol's ATM-2000+ Strategy, which was initiated by Europe's transport ministers as a gate-to-gate ATM strategy in 1997.
States are reviewing the initiative before adoption at ministerial level in January. "The strategy will remain little more than paper if people do not commit to it," says van den Assem.
Source: Flight International
