European Commission-led meeting with aviation sector debates measures to simplify regulatory structure
Greater clarity of regulators’ roles, avoiding a one-size fits all approach, and genuine consultation with stakeholders are among the aims to have emerged from a European Commission-led meeting with industry on future aviation regulation.
The EC gave the floor to industry and national bodies at a conference at its headquarters in Brussels last week on the future of aviation regulation. It followed last year’s groundbreaking Edinburgh conference, organised as part of the UK’s European presidency, and was a further sign of improved relations between Brussels regulators and aviation industry leaders.
It came as the EC aims to simplify aviation’s regulatory structure. EC Energy and Transport director general Matthias Ruete acknowledged that, despite success in liberalising the sector, work was needed to take complexity and cost out of Europe’s current patchwork regulatory structure.
“Although progress has been made, this progress has been piecemeal,” he said. “We need to think about strengthening the regulatory structure…to deliver a consistent and clean framework for aviation. Our challenge is to understand the needs of the industry as a whole.”
Association of European Airlines secretary general Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said the current “mixed bag” regulatory structure cannot deliver what the industry requires.
“It does not make sense to create a single European market if that market is to be governed by a plethora of different regulatory bodies which work in parallel,” he said.
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Speakers call for clarity Many speakers – from airlines, industry and unions, and national civil aviation authorities, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Eurocontrol – called for greater clarity of regulatory roles at the EC-led meeting on future aviation regulation. “There are a lot of players in Europe; it’s a complex structure and failure to have clear roles leads to a variety of problems,” said UK Civil Aviation Authority chairman Sir Roy McNulty. “Users suffer if there are gaps and overlaps, inconsistencies and confusion.” McNulty was among those to urge the EC not to ignore local requirements and recognise that “most states have different ways of meeting common objectives in different circumstances”. Director general of the French DGAC Michel Wachenheim said: “There is no point regulating at a national level if this is not feasible or necessary at a local level.” Much of the focus of the discussion was on the future roles of EASA and Eurocontrol. There continues to be broad support for the widening of EASA’s remit to cover major operational issues. But concerns on the funding of EASA were reiterated by a string of speakers, with calls for a greater contribution from the European Union. |
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Source: Flight International
