EASA?

[LH2]

Apologies for starting a new thread on what seems to be the favourite subject around here these days, but...

Could someone please explain to me or better yet, refer me to any official documentation where it is stated that EASA will effectively relieve the CAA from flight crew licencing duties as of next year (or whenever)?

Reason I'm asking is I fly in the continent and neither my aeroclub in France nor my mate who owns an FTO in Spain are aware of any plans for EASA to take over flight crew licencing--at least not in these two countries. What does happen at the moment in Spain (not sure about France) is EASA set out the requirements for engineer licencing, based on which the national authority then issues the actual licences. But none has heard anything about the same thing happening with flight crew in the immediate future.

France for one also has a national rating (the qualif. montagne) so if it were true that these things are to go, then surely at least my mountain instructor would be concerned? Blissful ignorance on his part? I think not :hmm:

So as you can see, quite a different picture from what is being portrayed here in the various threads and rants, which is why I would appreciate a reference to the official word on it--apologies if it has been missed, I did search in the other threads and in the pro-IMC website but didn't find anything authoritative.

Please note that I am not looking for a debate--if I were I would have posted on any of the other threads. What I am looking for is some kind of factual, official, verifiable information.

Thanks in advance.

[DaveW]

From the EASA website (http://www.easa.eu.int/home/aboutus_en.html):

Future tasks
The European Commission has proposed to extend the Agency’s responsibilities to further important areas of safety regulation:R

Rules and procedures for civil aviation operations;
Licensing of crews in the Member States;
Certification of non-Member State airlines.

The Agency expects to take over these tasks by 2008. In the long-term, it is also likely to play a key role in the safety regulation of airports and air traffic management systems.


(My Bold) Page last updated 21/11/07

[LH2]

Dave,

thanks for your reply. Sorry, I should have mentioned I'd been to the EASA website amongst a few other usual suspects (CAA, French DGAC, Spanish DGAC, official journals, etc.) and I am aware of the text you quoted, as well as the NPA from 2004, and some of the various bits of existing and currently proposed legislation, in fact, that's why I wrote "effectively relieve" national authorities of licencing duties. I have also consulted with people with intimate knowledge of the working of the EU and its institutions.

I note that the Basic Regulation [the law that says what EASA does--1592/2002, 15th of July, and its subsequent amendments] does not in its current form cover flight crew licencing, which is why I am mystified by the variety of comments I read here.

So to phrase my question in a different way:

a. Where is it stipulated that a transfer of regulatory duties covering flight crew licencing, from national authorities to EASA, will effectively take place on a specified date in the near future?

To this I would like to add:

b. Where can I find the text of these new regulations under which flight crew licences will be issued from the aforementioned specified future date?

TIA.
/LH2

[selfin]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-277253.html refers.

The 2nd URL on that thread, referring to COM/2005/0579 final, is broken. The fixed URL is http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0579en01.pdf

[BillieBob]

Where is it stipulated that a transfer of regulatory duties covering flight crew licencing, from national authorities to EASA, will effectively take place on a specified date in the near future?It isn't. EASA committees are currently transposing Joint Aviation Requirements into an new EU Regulation that will amend 1592/2002 to include licensing. The annexes to this regulation comprise the implementing rules that potentially do the damage. The best guess by those in the know for this task to be completed, given the tortuous processes of European lawmaking, is late 2009 or early 2010. However, there is, as yet, no specified date for completion.

Where can I find the text of these new regulations under which flight crew licences will be issued from the aforementioned specified future date?You can't, the proposed text will not be published until the NPA process commences, probably in March 2008. The discussions on here centre around leaks of the first draft of the document that may, or may not, bear some similarity to the NPA.

The fact that your contacts in France and Spain are unaware of the process is probably because either they are not represented on the committee(s) or their representatives do not keep them as well informed as do the UK's. For example, the UK CAA held a seminar for training organisations a few weeks ago during which the attendees were left in no doubt as to the seriousness of the threat to national licences and ratings or of the CAA's (or UK Government's) inability directly to affect the outcome.

[David Roberts]

I can confirm that
(a) The EU Council and Parliament agreed in December the final text (COM 579) of the extension of Regulation 1592/2002 to encompass Licensing and Operations (and also ‘third country’ – i.e. non-EU – aircraft).
(b) The draft Implementing Rules and associated Acceptable Means of Compliance are being finalised currently in the various working groups at EASA – in which various experts from the European representative bodies have been active, including myself
(c) The NPAs should be published from March 08 through June 08 and are subject to public consultation which you can take part in
(d) The consultation process, ensuing Comment Response Documents, final EASA Opinion to the Commission etc will take another year or so after that
(e) There will be a transition period for national aviation authorities to determine the transition rules of game for national licences to be converted to EU licences – that is when the matching of national qualifications and training to the EU equivalents will matter
(f) National licences will continue after the transition period only for flying non-EASA (i.e. Annex II) aircraft
(g) Expect transition to start around mid to late 2009.
The GA representative bodies involved in this rule drafting process do communicate developments generally with their constituencies. In the case of Europe Air Sports (which I represent) we send information to our members which are all the National Aero Clubs and the pan-EU air sport federations. These in turn cascade the information through national channels – some more effectively than others probably. IAOPA does a similar comunication through their established channels
In the end EASA creates the (licensing) rules for the Commission to bless and then the member states are responsible for implementing them.
Several of us involved in these working groups have pressed home the point that EASA needs to do a road show of the proposals to get the information to the target audiences. Certainly we expect EASA to hold press briefings, from which information can then be cascaded through the aviation press.

[LH2]

I would like to thank the above gentlemen for their helpful replies, as well as those received via e-mail. Much appreciated.