David Roberts
30th Mar 2009, 22:56
I posted this on 'the other place' two days ago. As no-one seems to have picked up on it on PPRUNE, here it is:
Following extensive work with the EU Commission and Parliament, Europe Air Sports is pleased to announce that as a result of its efforts, most airfields in the EU (incuding of course UK) used for light aviation will be outside the scope of EASA. The text of an announcement on 26th March from Europe Air Sports is below:
"European Parliament votes to exclude aerodromes mainly used for sports and recreational flying from common European rules
Only nine months after the Commission published its proposal for a regulation to extend the competencies of EASA to aerodromes, air traffic management and air navigation services, the European Parliament adopted on 25 March a legislative resolution significantly reducing the scope of the regulation as far as aerodromes are concerned.
After intensive interaction with the Commission, Parliament and the Council in the course of the EU’s law-making procedure (co-decision), Europe Air Sports is particularly pleased that the European decision-makers have listened to our good arguments and have recognised that it would be disproportionate to regulate aerodromes mainly used for sports and recreational flying at the European level.
According to the finally agreed text common European rules will only apply to those aerodromes, open to public use, “which serve commercial air transport and where operations using instrument approach or departure procedures are provided … and have a paved runway of 800 metres or above” (Article 3a). Furthermore any individual Member State may, by way of derogation, exempt any particular aerodrome, which “handles no more than 10 000 passengers” and “ or more than 850 cargo movements per year” (Article 3b).
The Commission had in its proposal already departed from EASA’s opinion that all aerodromes open to public use should be regulated at the European level. However, the Commission’s idea to regulate all aerodromes, open to public use “which can serve traffic conducted in accordance with the instrument flight rules or aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of 2730 kg” would still have exposed many aerodromes used by sports and recreational aviation to the European rules. At the same time the proposed wording would have generated – in many cases - a situation of legal uncertainty, in which it would have been uncertain whether an aerodrome would be regulated at European or national level.
Europe Air Sports takes the view that the text finally adopted by the European Parliament is both proportionate and clear and it is therefore fully supported."
This represents a major victory for Europe Air Sports in keeping a large number of currently unlicenced, and indeed licenced, airfields (in the UK in this case for this forum) outside the bureacracy and costs of EASA. The result was acheived with the valuable support of its professional adviser in Brussels, Timo Schubert, Associate Director of ADS Insight,
DGR / Vice president / Europe Air Sports
Following extensive work with the EU Commission and Parliament, Europe Air Sports is pleased to announce that as a result of its efforts, most airfields in the EU (incuding of course UK) used for light aviation will be outside the scope of EASA. The text of an announcement on 26th March from Europe Air Sports is below:
"European Parliament votes to exclude aerodromes mainly used for sports and recreational flying from common European rules
Only nine months after the Commission published its proposal for a regulation to extend the competencies of EASA to aerodromes, air traffic management and air navigation services, the European Parliament adopted on 25 March a legislative resolution significantly reducing the scope of the regulation as far as aerodromes are concerned.
After intensive interaction with the Commission, Parliament and the Council in the course of the EU’s law-making procedure (co-decision), Europe Air Sports is particularly pleased that the European decision-makers have listened to our good arguments and have recognised that it would be disproportionate to regulate aerodromes mainly used for sports and recreational flying at the European level.
According to the finally agreed text common European rules will only apply to those aerodromes, open to public use, “which serve commercial air transport and where operations using instrument approach or departure procedures are provided … and have a paved runway of 800 metres or above” (Article 3a). Furthermore any individual Member State may, by way of derogation, exempt any particular aerodrome, which “handles no more than 10 000 passengers” and “ or more than 850 cargo movements per year” (Article 3b).
The Commission had in its proposal already departed from EASA’s opinion that all aerodromes open to public use should be regulated at the European level. However, the Commission’s idea to regulate all aerodromes, open to public use “which can serve traffic conducted in accordance with the instrument flight rules or aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of 2730 kg” would still have exposed many aerodromes used by sports and recreational aviation to the European rules. At the same time the proposed wording would have generated – in many cases - a situation of legal uncertainty, in which it would have been uncertain whether an aerodrome would be regulated at European or national level.
Europe Air Sports takes the view that the text finally adopted by the European Parliament is both proportionate and clear and it is therefore fully supported."
This represents a major victory for Europe Air Sports in keeping a large number of currently unlicenced, and indeed licenced, airfields (in the UK in this case for this forum) outside the bureacracy and costs of EASA. The result was acheived with the valuable support of its professional adviser in Brussels, Timo Schubert, Associate Director of ADS Insight,
DGR / Vice president / Europe Air Sports