Documents considered by the Committee on 7 December 2016 Contents

13Civil aviation safety: EU and USA

Summary and Committee’s conclusions

Committee’s assessment	Politically important
Committee’s decision	Cleared from scrutiny; further information requested
Document details	(a) Proposed Council Decision on signing and provisional application of an agreement amending the EC-US agreement on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety; (b) Proposed Council Decision on conclusion of an agreement amending the EC-US agreement on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety
Legal base	(a) Articles 100(2) and 218(5) TFEU, —, QMV; (b) Articles 100(2) and 218(6)(a), consent, QMV
Department	Transport
Document Numbers	(a) (38232), 14011/16 + ADD 1, COM(16) 693 (b) (38233), 14012/16 + ADD 1, COM(16) 694

13.1There is an EU-US agreement on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety, the main purpose of which is to facilitate the reciprocal acceptance of approvals and related audit findings. The Commission has presented two proposed Council Decisions to approve the signature, provisional application and conclusion of an amendment to the agreement, which would extend its scope to cover all areas for which the European Aviation Safety Agency has responsibility for establishing safety standards.

13.2The Government tells us that it welcomes the proposed amendment to the EU-US aviation safety agreement, saying that it agrees with the Commission’s view that cooperation with the US under the agreement will help reduce the burden on industry and individual licence holders.

13.3While we are content to clear these proposed Council Decisions from scrutiny, we should like the Government to tell us what it expects the position on UK cooperation with the US on civil aviation safety to be post-Brexit.

Full details of the documents

(a) Proposed Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, and provisional application of an agreement amending the Agreement between the United States of America and the European Community on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety: (38232), 14011/16 + ADD 1, COM(16) 693; (b) Proposed Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of an agreement amending the Agreement between the United States of America and the European Community on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety: (38233), 14012/16 + ADD 1, COM(16) 694.

Background

13.4An agreement between the European Community and the USA on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety entered into force on 1 May 2011.16 Its main purpose is to facilitate the reciprocal acceptance of approvals and related audit findings.

13.5The agreement:

supports continuation of high-level regulatory cooperation and thus promotes a uniform high degree of safety in air transport;
facilitates the trade in goods and services covered by its scope and limits, so far as possible, the duplication of assessments, tests and controls to areas where significant regulatory differences exist;
currently has two annexes covering airworthiness and environmental approval of civil aeronautical products and approval and monitoring of maintenance facilities; and
provides that the parties may agree on additional areas of cooperation by amendment of the agreement.

The documents

13.6With these two proposed Council Decisions the Commission seeks approval of the signature, provisional application and conclusion of an amendment to the European Community-USA agreement. The amendment would extend the scope of the agreement to cover all areas for which the European Aviation Safety Agency has responsibility for establishing safety standards, and would encompass the following matters:

airworthiness approvals and monitoring of civil aeronautical products;
environmental testing and approvals of civil aeronautical products;
approvals and monitoring of maintenance facilities;
personnel licensing and training;
operation of aircraft;
aerodromes; and
air traffic services and air traffic management.

13.7The amendment would provide for the parties to develop further annexes to the agreement on matters within scope, covering the terms and conditions of reciprocal acceptance of approvals.

13.8The Commission proposed Council Decisions are accompanied by the text of the proposed amendment to the agreement.

The Government’s view

13.9In his Explanatory Memorandum of 21 November 2016 the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport (Lord Ahmad), comments first, in relation to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, that the EU already has competence in the field of civil aviation safety, that this area has been regulated at EU level for over a decade, and that the Government agrees with the Commission’s view that cooperation with the USA under the agreement will help reduce the burden on industry and individual licence holders.

13.10The Minister prefaces his comments on the implications of the proposals by reiterating the Government’s standard statement that until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the EU, all the rights and obligations of that membership remain in force, and during this period the Government will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation. He adds that the outcome of the negotiations will determine what arrangements apply in relation to EU legislation in future once the UK has left the EU.

13.11The Minister then says that:

the Government welcomes the proposed amendment to the European Community-USA aviation safety agreement;
it is an example of the good cooperative relationship under the agreement and is a logical consequence of seeking efficiencies in the regulatory systems of both parties;
despite the scope of the proposed Council Decisions, there is currently only an intention to introduce one new sectorial annex to the agreement, to deal with flight crew licensing—addition of any new annexes to the agreement will require separate Council Decisions;
there are a large number of privately operated US registered aircraft based in the EU;
under new EU legislation on flight crew licensing the pilots of such aircraft need to have a pilot’s licence issued in the EU from 8 April 2017 (although this may be extended to 8 April 2019);
extension of the scope of the agreement to include flight crew licensing should help minimise the burden on pilots with US licences who will need to obtain an EU licence;
once the agreement is amended, a detailed annex on flight crew licensing would be added, which would allow US qualifications to be taken into account during the licensing process and limit the duplication of assessments and tests to areas where significant regulatory differences exist;
although no consultation has been conducted, extension of the scope of the agreement is expected and welcomed by US licence holders in the UK and by general aviation representative bodies; and
extension of the scope of the agreement would have no direct impact on industry.

Previous Committee Reports

None.

16 See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:22011A1109(01)&qid=1479815684416&from=EN.

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9 December 2016