Considerations on COM(2022)545 - EU position for the adoption of international standards, amendments or the notification of differences to the Annexes to the Convention on International Civil Aviation - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2022)545 - EU position for the adoption of international standards, amendments or the notification of differences to the Annexes to the ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2022)545  |
| date | March 28, 2023 |
(2) The Member States of the Union are Contracting Parties to the Chicago Convention and ICAO Contracting States, while the Union has observer status in certain ICAO bodies.
(3) Pursuant to Article 54(l) of the Chicago Convention, the ICAO Council may adopt international Standards and Recommended Practices for civil aviation and designate them as Annexes to the Chicago Convention (‘ICAO Annexes’).
(4) As ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices are capable of decisively influencing the content of Union law in the area of civil aviation insofar as they are reflected in the legislation referred to in recitals (9) and (10), it is appropriate to establish a position on behalf of the Union to be adopted in the ICAO Council.
(5) Pursuant to Article 90 of the Chicago Convention, any ICAO Annex or any amendment to an ICAO Annex is to become effective within three months after its submission to the ICAO Contracting States, or at the end of such longer period of time as the ICAO Council may prescribe, unless in the meantime a majority of ICAO Contracting States register their disapproval. Once adopted and effective, standards are binding on all ICAO Contracting States, including all Member States of the Union, in accordance with and within the limits set out in the Chicago Convention, in particular Articles 37 and 38 thereof.
(6) Pursuant to Article 38 of the Chicago Convention, any ICAO Contracting State which finds it impracticable to comply in all respects with any standard or to bring its own regulations or practices into full accord with any standard after amendment of the latter, or which deems it necessary to adopt regulations or practices differing in any particular respect from those established by a standard, is to give immediate notification to ICAO of the differences between its own regulations or practices and those established by the standard. In the case of amendments to standards, any State which does not make the appropriate amendments to its own regulations or practices is to give notice to ICAO within sixty days of the adoption of the amendment to the standard, or indicate the action which it proposes to take.
(7) The internal rules of ICAO, in particular the late availability of documents for decisions regarding new standards or amendments of standards in the ICAO Council, or the deadlines set by ICAO for ICAO Contracting States to notify differences with respect to standards, as well as the number of differences in the areas of aviation safety, air navigation and air traffic management to be notified each year, make it difficult to establish the position to be adopted on behalf of the Union in a Council Decision based on Article 218(9) TFEU in a timely manner.
(8) Moreover, the standards adopted by the ICAO Council in the field of aviation safety, air navigation and air traffic management concern to a large extent matters of Union exclusive competence. It is therefore efficient and appropriate to establish a framework for the adoption of new standards or amendments of standards and the notification of differences with respect to standards in the field of aviation safety, air navigation and air traffic management falling within Union competence, without prejudice to the rights and obligations of Member States under the Chicago Convention. At ICAO level, aviation safety, air navigation and air traffic management standards are mainly contained in ICAO Annexes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18 and 19.
(9) At Union level, the requirements contained in those standards for aviation safety are mainly reflected and referred to in Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, Regulation (EU) 996/2010 6 , Regulation (EC) No 2111/2005 7 and Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 8 of the European Parliament and of the Council 9 and in the implementing and delegated acts adopted on the basis thereof in particular Commission Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 10 , Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 11 , Commission Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 12 , Commission Regulation (EU) No 139/2014 13 , Commission Regulation (EU) No 452/2014 14 , Commission Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 15 , Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/640 16 Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/947 17 , Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/945 18 , and Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/664 19 .
(10) At Union level, for air navigation and air traffic management, the requirements contained in those standards are mainly reflected and referred to in Regulation (EC) No 549/2004 20 , Regulation (EC) No 550/2004 21 , Regulation (EC) 551/2004 22 of the European Parliament and of the Council and in the implementing and delegated acts adopted on the basis thereof in particular Commission Regulation (EU) No 923/2012 23 , Commission Regulation (EU) No 1332/2011 24 Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/1048 25 , Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/340 26 .
(11) Given the specificity of civil aviation safety, air navigation and air traffic management compared to other sectors dealt with by ICAO, in particular the high number of standards adopted in these sectors by the ICAO Council and other related decisions and the number of differences to be notified every year, it is efficient to establish such a position on a multiannual basis, consisting of guiding principles and orientations. Most of the topics in the ICAO Council concern matters covered by the ICAO work programme as established by its triannual Assembly. It is therefore possible to establish a general position to be adopted on behalf of the Union in the ICAO Council.
(12) The detailed Union position should be defined based on the guiding principles and orientations laid out in Annex 1 and on the procedure laid out in Annex 2, and in accordance with the objectives pursued by the Union within the framework of the common transport policy in aviation, in order to promote a safe, secure, efficient, performant, open, economically viable and environmentally sound air transport system.
(13) The differences to be notified to ICAO should be based in particular on the information provided by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in accordance with Article 90(4) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, where applicable. Differences should follow the format defined by ICAO in the Electronic Filing of Differences system, where required by ICAO. Where, pursuant to this Decision, the position to be adopted on behalf of the Union is established in a written document submitted by the Commission to the Council for discussion and approval, such document should, where appropriate, and on a case-by-case basis, indicate whether flexibility should be granted to Member States for the form of the notification of the differences in question. Moreover, the Commission should endeavour to start preparing such document as soon as possible in order to allow for sufficient time for such preparation, including any appropriate consultation to be conducted at experts’ level.
(14) Differences to standards adopted by the ICAO Council in the field of aviation safety, air navigation and air traffic management may also stem from national measures adopted pursuant to Article 71 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 in the event of urgent unforeseeable circumstances, where those measures differ from standards and therefore require the notification of differences to ICAO pursuant to Article 38 of the Chicago Convention. It is therefore also appropriate to define in this Decision the procedure to be followed for the definition of such differences. That procedure should depend on the scope and duration of the national measures adopted and should enable Member States to comply without delay with their international obligations under Article 38 of the Chicago Convention. That procedure should be without prejudice to the conditions and procedure laid down in Article 71 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139.
(15) The Union's position is to be expressed by the Member States of the Union that are members of ICAO, acting jointly in the interest of the Union, and assisted by the Commission, in line with the Union’s observer status.
(16) The implementation of this Decision should allow Member States to comply with their obligations under the Chicago Convention.
(17) This Decision should apply for a limited period of time, namely until after the ICAO Council session following the 42nd ICAO Assembly.