Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The European Council adopted its first reading position to enhance the efficiency of air space management in the EU.
To improve the overall efficiency of how European airspace is organised and operated, the EU Council adopted its position at the first reading on the reform of the Single European Sky.
The reform seeks to improve the performance, organisation, and management of airspaces in the EU and the requirement of air navigation services to increase capacity, lower costs, and improve the system’s adaptability, while also trying to decrease aviation’s impact on the environment and climate. The Council’s position at first reading keeps the key purposes of the Single European Sky: reinforce safety, react to capacity needs, and help cut CO₂ emissions, while being cost-effective.
How does the reform balance airspace efficiency with state sovereignty?
The EU Council‘s position at first reading includes the following main elements in line with the provisional arrangement between the co-legislators: regarding the scope of the new legislative framework, the application of the regulation is without bias to member states’ sovereignty over their airspace and the conditions of the member states relating to public order, public security, and defence issues consequently, the new regulation does not obscure military operations and training.
How will national authorities oversee air navigation, and service providers?
As far as the condition of air navigation and air traffic services and the association of their regulation are concerned: a national supervisory authority is established by each member state to assess compliance of air navigation service providers with specific requirements, such as financial sustainability and organisational structure, in partnership with the national competent authority in charge of the certificate of air navigation service providers
What measures aim to reduce aviation’s environmental impact?
Moreover, measures were presented to reduce the aviation sector’s CO₂ footprint, especially the possibility for a mandatory modulation of en route orders to encourage airspace users to support progress in climate and environmental performance, such as the service of the most fuel-efficient available routing or increased usage of alternative clean propulsion technologies. These would be subject to a feasibility study that will define the contribution and the added value of such modulation and will consider its impact on air traffic, service provision, administrative expenses, and stakeholders.
Finally, the network perspective is supported by adding new network operations and by giving the current network manager, Eurocontrol, additional, clearly outlined tasks so that it can better assist in the sustainable and efficient use of the airspace, whereas member states shall be fully implicated in decisions of strategic priority for the network.
