Speech
of
Patrick KY
Executive Director
European Aviation safety Agency (EASA)
EUROPEAN CIVIL AVIATION CONFERENCE
THIRTY-FOURTH PLENARY (TRIENNIAL) SESSION
(ECAC/34)
60TH ANNIVERSARY
(STRASBOURG, 30 JUNE – 1 JULY 2015)
Mrs President of ECAC,
Mr President of ICAO,
Mr Secretary General of ICAO,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentleman,
It is a great honour and a privilege for me as
Executive Director of the European Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) to have the opportunity
today to pay tribute to ECAC at its birthplace
Strasbourg for its major contribution to
aviation as the safest transport mode
worldwide during the past six decades.
The creation of ECAC in this beautiful town in
1955 proved to be the appropriate European
response to the Chicago Convention and
foundation of ICAO establishing a solid
dialogue and close cooperation between the
two sides of the Atlantic.
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ECAC mission has been and continued to be
the promotion of a safe, efficient and
sustainable European air transport system
based on two main pillars:
- Harmonisation of civil aviation policies
and practices, and
- Partnership between States.
As a natural consequence of this approach, a
number of European States agreed under the
auspices of ECAC to closer co-operate in
developing and implementing common safety
regulatory standards and procedures through
the so-called Cyprus Arrangements, the
founding act of the Joint Aviation Authorities
(JAA).
The JAA, as associated body of ECAC, was the
embryo of the first European efforts towards
a safety regulatory harmonisation in the
aviation field.
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Subsequently, the EU political Masters
gradually realised the need to strengthen the
partnership between the EU Member States
and to establish a common safety regulatory
framework in the field of aviation as the way
to ensure safety for the EU citizens together
with growth and sustainability.
The result of this political will is today the
current EU aviation safety system with EASA
as its centre-piece.
I am therefore proud to say today that EASA is
a child of ECAC. Sometimes a turbulent,
demanding one, but always a respectful child,
mindful that it cannot function without the
Member States.
Because, as you know, in the EASA system,
the EU adopts common harmonised rules,
which are implemented by the States, and
this implementation is monitored by the
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Agency, which has also the responsibility to
certify all European aviation products.
This partnership goes beyond the EU since
EASA has already established close
cooperation links with all non-EU ECAC
Members both in the regulatory and the
implementation fields.
In particular, EASA carries out inspections in
most of the ECAC countries as support for a
harmonised rulemaking and implementation
of the European standards in all aviation
domains. Most, if not all ECAC countries have
effectively become parts of the EASA family,
parts of the EASA system.
And I think it works very well, as we are
streamlining our efforts in order to effectively
reduce or even eliminate all duplication, and
work on synergies. The fact that the ECAC
Safety Focal Point and EASA Chairman of the
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Board are the same and unique person, Pekka
Henttu, is clearly a great strength. It was not
always the case, as the relationship between
an EU Agency and Member States is inevitably
ambivalent. But I do think that we have now
reached a point where we are part of the
same family, and trust each other. It is worth
noting that we are currently discussing with
ICAO on a similar reduction, and, let’s hope,
elimination of overlap, in particular in the
domain of audits and inspections.
Looking ahead, as you know, EASA is
preparing itself for its second decade.
I do not want to go too much into the details
of what we proposed for the evolution of the
Agency, but I would just like to say that we
are proposing to strengthen the EASA family,
with mechanisms to delegate-cooperatecoordinate more fluidly between the Agency
and the Member States. For instance, we
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foresee that a member States wishing to do
so may declare that the so-called State
aircraft (I am not talking of Military aircraft,
but typically Emergency services, Police, etc…)
under its jurisdiction would fall under the
EASA regime, whereas they are explicitly
excluded from the current EASA regulation.
We also foresee that a country which does
not have the resources to perform some of its
tasks may delegate those tasks to another
authority or to EASA, or may be able to pull
upon a set of common resources.
We are strengthening the EASA family, at a
stage where we must prepare ourselves to
face new challenges, such as drones or
cybersecurity, with very little hope of increase
in resources.
We count on an even stronger partnership
with ECAC in order to be able to maintain and
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increase the safety levels of European
aviation.
Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude
to ECAC for having paved the path and
shaped aviation for 6 decades showing us the
way forward.
Thank you.
P. KY
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