European air transport policies

Resolution 964 (1991)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

See Doc. 6450, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, Rapporteur : Mr Flückiger. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 28 June 1991.

Thesaurus

1. The Assembly warmly welcomes the recent increase, to twenty-five, in the number of member states of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), which now covers essentially the same geographical area as the Council of Europe.

2. This development will greatly facilitate ECAC's efforts to create a ‘‘one air Europe'' of harmonised, and eventually integrated, European civil aviation management, as called for in the Parliamentary Assembly's Resolution 939 (1990) on the growing congestion of Europe's airports and skies, and it will also permit a better co-ordination of the needs of civilian and military aviation respectively.

3. Integration is necessary not only to meet the increasing strain on Europe's airports and airspace, but in order to permit aviation to contribute fully to the general process of European integration.

4. The Assembly notes the efforts by the European Community to create a liberalised civil aviation market by 1993, and the contacts with Sweden and Norway aiming at the extension of such a market to those countries. However, it regrets that other European countries have not yet been included in the talks, and hopes that this will not give rise to the creation of two or more regulatory frameworks for air transport in Europe.

5. The Assembly, in conclusion, invites the member states of the Council of Europe and of ECAC :

5.1 to make the fullest possible use of ECAC in order to achieve a competitive, consumer-oriented, environmentally sound and economically healthy European air transport system, and to provide ECAC with the resources necessary to accomplish this task ;

5.2 to participate fully in the strategy for air traffic control in Europe adopted by ECAC member states in April 1990, while expressing the hope that all Central and East European member states will be progressively associated with the strategy in the near future.

6. Furthermore, the Assembly invites ECAC :

6.1 to pay particular attention to the special needs and concerns of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and to assist them in all ways possible as they try to integrate their air transport systems into that of the greater Europe ;

6.2 vigorously to pursue - in line with the Assembly's Recommendation 1099 (1989) on aviation security and with recent ECAC recommendations - a policy of enhanced security against terrorism, through such measures as closer co-operation between governments, investment in human resources and adaptation of airports ;

6.3 to search for ways of achieving greater air traffic and airport efficiency, subject to action being taken to ensure that aircraft noise nuisance is reduced ;

6.4 to pay attention also to other environmental damage caused by aviation ;

6.5 in particular, to speed up its work on stratospheric and atmospheric pollution by aircraft, and to implement, if possible ahead of schedule, the agreement of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to introduce more silent aircraft of the ‘‘Chapter 3'' type by the year 2002 at the latest ;

6.6 to reflect on the broader question of the future structure of Europe's airline industry, and its implications for competition, consumer service and profitability ;

6.7 to urgently examine, in the interests of the consumer, the present excessive cost of European air fares ;

6.8 to examine ways of avoiding excessive ageing of aircraft fleets, especially in countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Third World ;

6.9 to encourage co-operation between air transport and railway interests, so as to bring about better co-ordination of passenger traffic over shorter distances ;

7. The Assembly also urges ECAC member states which have not yet done so to apply for membership of Eurocontrol, responsible for the establishment of joint European air traffic flow management, and the newly created Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), entrusted with the task of setting European standards in aviation safety, and likewise calls on these bodies to accept new applicant states as rapidly as possible.

8. Finally, the Assembly calls on the governments of those European countries which have not yet done so to join ECAC.