[autom.vertaling] De Commissie stelt bekrachtiging van de toetreding van de Europese Gemeenschap tot Eurocontrol voor (en)

The Commission presented a proposal for a Council decision whereby the European Community will become a full member of Eurocontrol, the European organisation for aviation safety. "The accession of the European Community to EUROCONTROL will enable the EU to ensure that EUROCONTROL's activities go hand in hand with, supplement and strengthen European policy concerning the reorganisation of airspace in the context of the European Single Sky initiative", stated Loyola de Palacio, the Vice-President for transport and energy.

The Commission proposed to the Council the ratification of the Protocol of accession to EUROCONTROL. This ratification is the logical consequence of the signature⁽¹⁾ of the accession Protocol on 8 October 2002. The aim is that the Protocol should be implemented as soon as possible as a result of this ratification and ratification by all the EUROCONTROL contracting parties.⁽²⁾

The Protocol specifies the rules governing the participation of the Community and the Member States in EUROCONTROL and will enable the Community to exercise its exclusive powers with regard to air traffic management, the area covered by the revised EUROCONTROL Convention.⁽³⁾

European Community participation in EUROCONTROL is of twofold interest to the EU and civil aviation:

• it will strengthen EUROCONTROL's capacity for launching programmes for the development and implementation of new air traffic management technologies allowing the creation of the European Single Sky.

  The entire aviation sector should in this way benefit from progress in terms of safety, capacity and efficiency of air traffic management;

• it will make it possible to strengthen the synergy between the two organisations when the reform of the regulatory framework for the management of European air traffic provided for in the Single Sky legislative initiative is implemented.

Before the end of the year the Commission will sign a cooperation agreement with EUROCONTROL to entrust to it the organisation of assessment work needed to prepare Community rules in the context of the Single Sky initiative.

^{(1)Following Council Decision 11053/02 AVIATION 121 of 17 July 2002 adopted on the basis of the Commission's proposal of 6 June 2002 (COM(2002) 292 final of 6 June 2002).}

^{(2)The Protocol of accession will enter into force when 31 countries and the Community have deposited their instruments of ratification. The Commission intends to cooperate with the Member States in order to speed up this process so that the Community can act in the decision-making bodies of that organisation in order to achieve its own objectives in cooperation with its European partners.}

^{(3)The revised Convention will enter into force when the 27 countries that are contracting parties to Eurocontrol at the time of signature of the Protocol consolidating the Eurocontrol Convention have deposited their instruments of ratification. So far 13 States have ratified, accepted or approved the revised convention and deposited the instrument of ratification, including Finland, Portugal and Luxembourg.}