The new European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is on schedule to start operations in 2001 or 2002, despite disagreements on several key aspects of the organisation.
Although it is being formed on the initiative of the European Union (EU), EASA will not be a European Commission (EC) agency. Instead, it will be an international body, based on a treaty to be signed by EU and non-EU states.
EASA will supersede the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA). This 27-member club of national civil aviation authorities, based in Amsterdam, issues a range of aviation directives, but these are not legally binding on member states. EASA's directives will be mandatory.
Although Brussels is confident of getting the EASA running by 2002, some JAA members doubt whether the organisation can be fully operational until 2004 or 2005.
EU transport ministers gave the EC a mandate to negotiate the EASA convention last June, although ministers were unable to agree on the voting rules which would apply within the new organisation. Smaller countries without major air transport or aircraft manufacturing industries favoured a one-state, one-vote system. The others - including the UK, France and Germany - want a voting system weighted to reflect the relative size of their industries.
Apart from the voting system, the key areas of difficulty include:
• the languages that EASA would use in its operations;
• its location;
• whether decisions should be directly and immediately applicable in all EASA member states.
An initial draft convention, which did not seek to resolve the main disagreements, was sent in February to a committee of EC member states' representatives, created to monitor the drafting process. The committee held a first formal meeting to discuss the document on 20 April. "It was rather well received," says one official.
It is hoped that sufficient accord over key problem areas can be achieved to allow formal talks with non-EU countries to start by the end of the year.
Source: Flight International
