Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2009)611 - Investigation and prevention of accidents and incidents in civil aviation - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2009)611 - Investigation and prevention of accidents and incidents in civil aviation. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2009)611  |
| date | 29-10-2009 |
Independent investigations of accidents are essential in the drive to improve transport safety. Analysis of the circumstances of accidents leads to recommendations being made to prevent these dramatic events from re-occurring.
Civil aviation, although in existence for a relatively short period of time, has well established traditions in accident investigation. The obligation to investigate accidents in civil aviation is enshrined in the Convention on International Civil Aviation to which all Member States are Parties. Detailed international standards and recommended practices in this respect are defined in Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention and related guidance material.
Recognising the importance of accident investigation, the European Community already in 1980 adopted a Directive 80/1266/EEC on cooperation and mutual assistance between the Member States in the field of air accident investigation i. The 1980 Directive was subsequently replaced by Directive 94/56/EC i. In addition Directive 2003/42/EC on occurrence reporting in civil aviation, was adopted in 2003 i.
Under Directive 94/56/EC Member States are obliged to ensure that every accident or serious incident in civil aviation is subject to an investigation by an independent body and that the only purpose of the investigation is to prevent future accidents and not to apportion blame or liability. Investigators have been given additional rights enabling them to carry out their tasks in a more efficient manner and the basic principles concerning publication of reports and dissemination of safety recommendations were established.
Directive 2003/42/EC, by supporting the establishment of safety occurrence reporting systems, significantly contributed to the promotion of 'Just Culture' in European civil aviation. Aviation professionals are now obliged to report occurrences in their daily operational work and provisions have been made to ensure that the information reported can be exchanged and disseminated, so that safety lessons can be learned. Establishment of voluntary reporting systems is also supported and encouraged by the Directive.
Contents
The Community system for civil aviation accident investigation and occurrence reporting as currently established, functions below optimum efficiency. Especially the current regulatory framework dealing with accident investigation, i.e. Directive 94/56/EC, is now already 15 years old, and no longer meets the requirements of the Community and the Member States. In particular:
- There is much more divergence in the investigating capacity of the Member States comparing to the situation in 1994. Especially after the recent enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007, the investigating capacity is concentrated in a few Member States only;
- Aircraft and their systems are becoming increasingly complex, which also means that investigation of aviation accidents requires substantially more diversified expertise and resources than a decade ago;
- The EU common aviation market grew substantially both in size (now covering 27 Member States) and complexity in the last decade (emergence of multi-based operators, increasing reliance on outsourcing of maintenance, multinational design and manufacturing), creating new challenges in safety oversight;
- The increase in the size and complexity of the internal aviation market also called for increased responsibility of the Community for aviation safety. The EU institutional and legal framework changed significantly since the adoption of Directive 94/56/EC. Safety standards are now almost exclusively defined at the EU level and the European Aviation Safety Agency, which on behalf of the Member States is responsible for certification of aircraft in the Community, was established in 2002 i;
- The EU and its Member States gained significant practical experiences in application of Directive 94/56/EC. These lessons should be used to strengthen the efficiency of the current regulatory system.
Before presenting this proposal, the Commission conducted a detailed analysis of the current situation in civil aviation accident investigation and occurrence reporting in the EU, in particular through public consultations with the interested stakeholders, and authorities of the Member States. All respondents either fully or partially agreed that there are currently shortcomings in civil aviation accident investigation and occurrence reporting in Europe. However at the same time, majority of the respondents argued that it is too early to consider a comprehensive revision of Directive 2003/42/EC and that the focus should be on improving the efficiency of the regulatory framework for accident investigation.
In addition, the Commission relied on the results of an external impact assessment study prepared in 2007, which took into account the results of the public consultations as well as the input from:
1. A detailed questionnaire distributed directly by an external consultant to a large number of interested stakeholders;
2. A number of interviews conducted by an external consultant with a limited number of interested stakeholders constituting a representative sample;
On this basis, the Commission, conducted an own impact assessment study, which identified the following specific problem areas:
3. Lack of a uniform investigating capacity in the EU;
4. Tensions between safety investigations and other proceedings;
5. Unclear role of the Community in safety investigations;
6. Weaknesses in implementation of safety recommendations;
7. Lack of common standards concerning management of passenger manifests and support to the victims of air accidents and their families;
In order to address the current inefficiencies the Commission analysed a number of possible policy options:
8. Promotion of voluntary cooperation;
9. European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities;
10. European Civil Aviation Safety Board;
All the options were compared against each other and measured against the “do nothing” option as the benchmark for analysing their safety, economic, environmental, social and other impacts. This analysis clearly indicated that support for voluntary cooperation, coupled with a number of important principles enshrined in a legally binding framework, envisaged under the policy option 'European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities', would allow meeting the Community objectives in the most cost-efficient way and without going beyond what is strictly necessary from the proportionality point of view.
Promotion of voluntary cooperation
The submitted proposal sets out the promotion of voluntary cooperation, the objectives of which are enshrined in a legally binding framework. It builds on the resources already available in the Member States and experiences of the existing informal cooperation of the National Safety Investigation Authorities. Under the proposed Regulation this informal cooperation will be transformed into a European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities (the Network).
"The Network" will contribute to greater uniformity, better implementation and enforcement of the Community civil aviation accident investigation legislation. It will also strengthen the investigating capacity of the EU and the preventive function of accident investigation by promoting a more structured cooperation between the national Safety Investigation Authorities, the Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency, while fully retaining an independent status.
In order to void the creation of a new Community body, “the Network” will have no legal personality and its mandate, which is clearly described in the proposed Regulation, will be limited to advisory and coordination tasks. 'The Network', will constitute a body pursuing an aim of general European interest, within the meaning of Article 108 (1)b of the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 (the Financial Regulation) i , which will allow the Community to support its activities with an annual grant, on the basis of an annually agreed work programme.
The main drawback of a policy option involving only voluntary cooperation is lack of a legal obligation to act within the framework of a clearly defined mandate. Voluntary cooperation is also not expected to adequately resolve issues where legal certainty is needed, such as protection of sensitive safety information, defining the mutual rights and obligations of national Safety Investigation Authorities and EASA in safety investigations or establishing uniform requirements in terms of processing of safety recommendations.
To avoid such drawbacks, which are at the centre of the improvement needed to address the inefficiencies of the current regulatory framework, the proposed Regulation complements the voluntary cooperation by a number of obligations enshrined in law, which will:
- Update and modernise the main provisions of the former Directive 94/56/EC;
- Strengthen the efficiency of safety investigations by implementing into the Community law the international standards and recommended practises related to protection of evidence and sensitive safety information, in accordance with Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention;
- Establish common requirements in terms of organisation of national Safety Investigation Authorities and strengthen the independent status of safety investigations;
- Better coordinate the various inquires into the causes of accidents and incidents, notably by mandating the national Safety Investigation Authorities to conclude appropriate advance arrangements with other authorities (judicial, search and rescue) likely to be involved in accident investigation;
- Clarify the mutual rights and obligations of the European Aviation Safety Agency and national Safety Investigation Authorities without compromising independence of safety investigations, and using as a reference Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention;
- Specify the criteria on the basis of which Safety Investigation Authorities would appoint accredited representatives for the 'State of Design';
- Establish common requirements for Community airlines regarding passenger lists and protection of the data contained therein;
- Strengthen the rights of the victims of air accidents and of their families;
- Better protect anonymity of persons involved in accident;
- Strengthen implementation of safety recommendations by:
- establishing a central database of safety recommendations;
- establishing a legal requirement for every entity in the EU issuing a safety recommendation or receiving it to have a process for recording the responses to the safety recommendation issued and monitoring the progress of the action taken in response to a safety recommendation;
Although establishment of a European agency for civil aviation accident investigation should not be excluded in the longer term, given the integrated nature of the single aviation market in the EU, this would be premature at this stage. Accordingly, this proposal does not shift the current division of responsibilities in civil aviation accident and incident investigation, which would still rest with the competent authorities of the Member States.
Compared with other alternative policy options analysed in the Impact Assessment accompanying this proposal, the proposed Regulation has the biggest added value from the Community perspective. It is the most proportional policy option which, while fully respecting the principle of independence of safety investigations would allow, by supporting voluntary cooperation and without establishing new structures at the Community level, to significantly enhance the overall efficiency of the current regulatory framework for civil aviation accident investigation and prevention in the EU.