Lon More : about Maastricht closing in 10 years, I do not believe that it will happen, not within the 20 years I would say. After ? Who knows?
Main reasons, for me ( I am just giving you my educated opinion ) are many .
first , one of the players ( belgocontrol ) is nearly bankrup and in no position to raise the capital needed to take over back their upper airspace. Even Luxemburg is looking at taking back their airspace ( until FL 245) from them.
.
Next, the main proponents of Maastricht closure and transfer back to Germany have retired from DFS last year and the new guys are far more cautious . The strict rethoric is gone at least.
Then , surprisingly , the tone and words used in the joint letter sent by transports ministers of France and Germany to Commissionner Kallas, indicate clearly that the current cooperative approach and retaining what we have institutionally is , for the time beeing at least, desirable. In other words, we build around what we have, we then look what we can change.
Lastly , the current downfall of traffic , combined with the constant pressure to reduce route charges is not very compatible with the huge costs of closing maastricht and transfering ( i.e building) new facilities to accomodate the sectors and staff.
I think, like many that the name might change , Eurocontrol might pull out ( not so sure of that , but a possibility) , some divisons might shrink or disappear,but the ATC part will most probably remain in Maastricht .