With a view to improving the overall efficiency of the way in which European airspace is organised and managed, today the Council adopted its position at first reading on the reform of the Single European Sky.
The aim of the reform is to improve the performance, organisation, and management of airspaces in the EU and the provision of the air navigation services to increase capacity, lower costs, and increase the system’s adaptability, while also trying to reduce aviation’s impact on environment and climate. The Council’s position at first reading retains the key objectives of the Single European Sky: reinforce safety, respond to capacity needs, and help cut CO₂ emissions, while being cost-effective.
Main elements of the Council position
The Council’s position at first reading contains the following main elements in line with the provisional agreement between the co-legislators:
- regarding the scopeof the new legislative framework, the application of the regulation is without prejudice to member states’ sovereignty over their airspace and to the requirements of the member states relating to public order, public security, and defence matters
- consequently, the new regulation does not cover military operationsand training.
As far as the provision of air navigation and air traffic services and the organisation of their regulation are concerned:
- a national supervisory authorityis designated by each member state to assess compliance of air navigation service providers with certain requirements, such as financial sustainability and organisational structure, in cooperation with the national competent authority in charge of the certification of air navigation service providers
- member states may decide to assign those tasks to one or the otherauthority
- the air navigation service providers and the national supervisory authority can be part of the same organisationprovided they are functionally separated and meet independence requirements
- it will also be possible for member states to merge economic and safety oversightfunctions in the same administrative entity, as this solution cuts red tape and adapts to existing organisational models
- air traffic service providers may open certain air navigation servicesto market conditions on a voluntary basis and member states may decide to authorise the opening of air traffic services for aerodrome and/or approach control to market conditions
- national supervisory authorities and the Commission will together assess the performanceof air navigation services, in accordance with the subsidiarity and proportionality principles
- the Commission is assisted in this process by an independent performance review board(PRB), which has an advisory role, is established as a stable and permanent entity, and will be funded by the EU budget.
Moreover, measures were introduced to reduce the aviation sector’s CO₂ footprint, mainly the possibility for a mandatory modulation of en route charges to encourage airspace users to support improvements in climate and environmental performance, such as the use of the most fuel-efficient available routing or increased use of alternative clean propulsion technologies. These would be subject to a feasibility study that will determine the contribution and the added value of such a modulation, and will assess its impact on air traffic, service provision, administrative costs, and stakeholders.
Finally, the network perspective is strengthened by adding new network functions and by giving the current network manager, Eurocontrol, additional, clearly delineated tasks so that it can better contribute to the sustainable and efficient use of the airspace, whereas member states shall be fully involved in decisions of strategic importance for the network.