Considerations on COM(2024)78 - EU position in the 231st session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as regards the envisaged amendment to Annex 13 - Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2024)78 - EU position in the 231st session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as regards the ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2024)78  |
| date | March 11, 2024 |
(2)The Member States are Contracting States to the Chicago Convention and members of the ICAO, while the Union has observer status in certain ICAO bodies. There are six Member States represented in the ICAO Council.
(3)Pursuant to Article 54 of the Chicago Convention, the ICAO Council may adopt international Standards and Recommended Practices (‘SARPs’), and designate them as Annexes to the Chicago Convention.
(4)The ICAO Council, at its 231st session, is to adopt amendment 19 to Annex 13 – Aicraft Accident and Incident Investigation to the Chicago Convention.
(5)The main purpose of the amendment 19 to Annex 13 - Aicraft Accident and Incident Investigation to the Chicago Conventionto is to to improve aviation safety by ensuring a high level of efficiency, expediency, and quality of civil aviation safety investigations.
(6)The proposed changes aim to reach these objectives by assisting the safety investigation authorities of the Member States in their investigations on Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAS), and making available without delay information and data from recorders installed on aircraft. The amendment also recognises the expectations of the public and the media to be informed, and therefore includes provisions to provide timely factual information during safety investigations. Furthermore, the use of modern technologies may facilitate shortening the consultation period thus expediting the publication of the final report. Finally, sending the final reports in electronic format will help to upload them into the ICAO central database.
(7) The European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities (ENCASIA) set up by Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 4 , which one of its duties is to advising Union institutions on all aspects of development and implementation of Union policies and rules relating to safety investigations and the prevention of accidents and incidents, has contributed to the development of the proposal related to the amendment 19.
(8)It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union's behalf within the ICAO Council as the Amendment 19 to Annex 13 – Aicraft Accident and Incident Investigation to the Chicago Convention will be binding under international law in accordance with Article 90(a) of the Chicago Convention and is capable of decisively influence EU law, in particular Regulation (EU) 996/2010.
(9)The Union's position during the 231st session of the ICAO Council or any consequent session with regard to the adoption of the envisaged Amendment 19 to Annex 13 - Aicraft Accident and Incident Investigation to the Chicago Convention should be to support and comply with these amendments in their entirety.
(10)Pursuant to Article 38 of the Chicago Convention, any State which finds it impracticable to comply in all respects with any such international standard or procedure, or to bring its own regulations or practices into full accord with any such international standard or procedures or which deems it necessary to adopt regulations or practices differing in any particular respect from those established by an international standard, should give immediate notification to the ICAO of the differences between its own practice and that established by the international standard.
(11)Pursuant to Article 90 of the Chicago Convention, any such Annex or any amendment of an Annex shall become effective within three months after its submission to the ICAO contracting States, or at the end of such longer period of time as the ICAO Council may prescribe, unless in the meantime a majority of contracting ICAO States register their disapproval.
(12)The Union’s position after the adoption of Amendment 19 to Annex 13 - Aicraft Accident and Incident Investigation to the Chicago Convention by the ICAO Council, to be announced by the ICAO Secretary General via an ICAO State Letter procedure, should be to not register any disapproval and to comply with the amendments. Where Union legislation would deviate from the newly adopted SARPs after an envisaged date of application of those SARPs, a difference with those particular SARPs should be notified to ICAO. The Union position with respect of such difference should be based on a written document submitted by the Commission to the Council for discussion and approval.
(13)This position should be expressed by all the Member States of the Union, acting jointly in the interest of the Union