European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)

EASA became operational in 2003 under Euro­pean Parliament and Council authority. It is an independent EU body accountable to the Member States and the EU institutions. Its responsibil­ity is aviation safety and aviation’s impact on the environment. It reached full functionality in 2008 when the functions of the former JAA were incorporated into EASA.

While EASA has taken over the respon­sibilities previously performed by JAA, there are differences. EASA has regulatory authority from the European Commission, the Council, and the Parliament, while JAA’s operations were conducted under coordinated laws of the several Member States of the EU. EASA regulations have the direct force of law.

EASA’s main tasks include:

• Rule-making, that is, drafting safety legisla­tion for the European Commission

• Standardization programs and inspections to insure uniform implementation of EU avia­tion safety legislation in all Member States

• Type certification of aircraft, engines, and parts

* Data collection, analysis, and research to improve aviation safety

* Licensing of crews within the EU, certifica­tion of non-member States’ airlines, as well as playing a key role in the safety regulation of airports

* The agency is also developing close work­ing relationships with safety organizations in other countries (like the FAA) and with ICAO with the goal of harmonizing safety standards and procedures.

■ European Air Traffic Control

European air traffic control after World War II was similar to jurisdiction of everything else in Europe, a matter of the sovereign control of each separate government, with interaction between nations being dictated by treaty. The same impediments to unification seen elsewhere pre­vailed in attempts to create a system of air traffic control for the European continent. Movement of aircraft across borders involved air traffic control of both countries, with no central flow system.

Centralization of air traffic control was the beneficiary of advances made in other sectors of the growth of the EEC, which ultimately culmi­nated in the formation of the European Union. As advances were made in those other sectors, an infrastructure for air traffic control was also being built. Navaids were installed, routes were created, rules and regulations for flight and con­trol authority were established. The separate States relied on past treaties (Paris Treaty of 1919), the First Convention Relating to the Regu­lation of Aerial Navigation (signed by 27 States in 1919), the International Civil Aviation Confer­ence, and then NATO to coordinate military use of the airspace.

In 1958, seven States8 set up the Technical Working Group “Eurocontrol” composed of civil and military representatives. Basically filling a vacuum due to the absence of any orchestrated plan between the States of Europe, Eurocontrol grew, receiving authority to establish centers, facil­ities, data processing, establishing communica­tions networks between States and their governing authorities, and generally building other necessary infrastructure to handle air traffic management over and beyond the borders of Europe.

Harmonization and integration was facili­tated under the auspices of ECAC during the 1980s and by the creation of the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU). That system under Eurocontrol became responsible for all traffic control flow management for the entire continent in 1996.

In 1999, the European Commission announced the creation of the “Single European Sky” (SES), requiring a developmental approach involving Eurocontrol interim cooperation and assistance and the preparation for the assumption of a primary role in the “Single European Sky” concept. Traffic handling was still very much a national, sovereign affair, and Eurocontrol opera­tion was separated among five regional flow management centers, all operated by their own national administrations.

SES is an ambitious initiative to reform the architecture of European air traffic control and to meet future capacity and safety needs.

In 2004, the Council and the European Parlia­ment endorsed the Single European Sky legisla­tion that will integrate all European air traffic control in the European Community. A package of four regulations is included in this enabling legislation.

1. The framework regulation: This sets out the overall objectives for the Single European Sky initiative—“to enhance current safety standards and overall efficiency for general air traffic in Europe, to optimize capacity meeting the requirements of all airspace users and to minimize delays.”

2. The airspace regulation: This concerns the use and organization of airspace, both for the civil and military requirements of Mem­ber States.

3. The service provision regulation: This mandates that common standards are to be applied for all navigation services provided.

4. The interoperability regulation: This looks to insure the integration of all systems from whatever source. The systems include eight areas: airspace management, air traffic flow management, air traffic services, communi­cations, navigation, surveillance, aeronauti­cal information services, and meteorological information.

This is a work in progress. The final prod­uct will include the standardization of air traffic systems across Europe, the common licensing of air traffic controllers, and the reconfiguration of European airspace into functional blocks irre­spective of national borders. The original concept of SES has been reformed (amended) in a com­munication known as Single European Sky II (2008), which more clearly defines the goals of SES to be based on four pillars:

1. Performance, to include reductions in delays and shortening of routes, creation of func­tional airspace blocks (FABS) designed to meet these performance objectives, slot allo­cation and deployment of the SESAR (like NextGen performance-based navigation).

2. Safety, to extend EASA authority to aero­dromes, air traffic management, and air nav­igation services.

3. New technologies, or the implementing of SESAR and its benefits.

4. Managing capacity on the ground to insure airports’ capacities comport to ATM capacity.

The intent is to perform an internal reform of Eurocontrol to align it with the government structures of Single European Sky. Assuming this can be done, Eurocontrol will proceed to implement these policies.