The
European Commission is currently developing one of the centrepieces
of the Single European Sky (SES) legislation: the legal framework
concerning the performance and charging scheme for air navigation
services for the period of 2015-2019. Considering the previous
under-performance of the Member States, it is unacceptable that due
to their pressure the Commission’s new proposals are not only
lacking ambition, but will also prevent the realisation of the high
level goals for SES by a considerable margin.
Single
European Sky is considered as the single largest pan-European project
promising tangible benefits to European mobility, competitiveness and
the environment. Under the Single Sky regulation, air navigation
service providers are required to improve their overall performance
and efficiency while harmonising their services by creating so-called
Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs). It is now more than a decade since
the European Commission first adopted proposals for a Single European
Sky. All initiatives to achieve a harmonised and efficient European
airspace have so far failed to deliver. The successful implementation
now depends on a strong legislation on the so-called second Reference
Period, covering the timeframe from 2015-2019.
The
Heads of the airline associations, AEA, EBAA, ELFAA, ERA and IACA
comment:
“European
airspace users are negatively impacted and therefore extremely
concerned by the lack of achievements: the Single European Sky needs
to be put back on track by stronger leadership from the European
Commission and enforced commitment by the Member States. The
currently proposed legislation does not ensure that the SES
high-level goals are delivered and therefore needs to be improved. In
order to break the deadlock situation, we call the European
Commission to withdraw its proposal regarding the performance and
charging schemes and to work on a more appropriate framework in line
with the SES high level goals.”