MONTRÉAL AND
PARIS, 12 JULY 2016 – Major contributions over the last 70 years to the
safety, security and sustainable development of international civil aviation, on
behalf of ICAO’s European and the North Atlantic (EUR/NAT) Regional Office,
were celebrated in Paris by ICAO’s Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu
and Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu, and France’s Director General of Civil
Aviation Mr. Patrick Gandil, and hundreds of other government and aviation
sector guests.
“It is a great pleasure
to be back in Paris, and especially for an occasion as joyous and significant as
the celebration of this office’s 70th anniversary of historic service to
international civil aviation,” declared ICAO’s Council President, Dr. Olumuyiwa
Benard Aliu. “ICAO’s Paris Office serves no less than 56 States, and it could
not accomplish this very significant mandate without the continuing generosity
and unwavering commitment of the Government of France to its effective
operations.”
ICAO’s Secretary
General, Dr. Fang Liu, underlined to the assembled dignitaries how ICAO is
working to strengthen the resources of all of its Regional Offices to better
support the more effective implementation of ICAO’s Standards and Policies, and
to meet the new challenges and responsibilities they are facing. “By
strengthening our Regional Offices’ responsibilities and accountability,
especially with respect to how they engage and coordinate directly with States,
ICAO can better ensure seamless organizational coordination at both the global
and regional levels. This process also aids the generation of the political will
required to build capacity and promote and implement our key No Country Left
Behind initiatives,” she stressed.
ICAO’s EUR/NAT Office
has been instrumental to safely managing the technological progression to the
first jet aircraft, and the complex introduction of the first supersonic
transports. It has also been essential to the effective European cooperation
established for flexible civil and military airspace use, and in helping to
facilitate the liberalization transition from national airlines to privatized
carriers.
“ICAO’s regional
presence here in Paris is nothing short of essential to the effective
coordination of safe, secure and reliable air services,” The Council President
of ICAO remarked. He also recognized that the work of all of its seven Regional
Offices worldwide is becoming more important than ever to how the Organization
plays its part in assuring the necessary cooperation to realize safe and
reliable global air transport access for citizens and businesses
everywhere.
“This further brings to
mind that while Europe today is characterized by a number of strong and
effective institutions in the domain of civil aviation, the governance structure
of these bodies doesn’t permit them to be accredited to as many States, covering
such a diverse and comprehensive geopolitical spectrum, as ICAO’s EUR/NAT
Regional Office,” Dr. Aliu commented.
Secretary General Liu
also noted the significant challenge in the EUR and NAT Regions “given the
wide-ranging variation in the level of maturity of States’ civil aviation
systems, traffic profiles and operational capabilities.”
ICAO’s EUR/NAT Regional
Director, Mr. Luis Fonseca de Almeida, concluded that “Cooperation amongst
States, international and regional organizations, and the aviation industry, is
the only effective way to achieve continuous improvements in aviation – both at
the regional and the global level. In order to better support States in aligning
technical and operational outcomes, using their strategic inputs, it is
necessary to reinvent ourselves and adapt our business model to the new
challenges. The support of our regional stakeholders has been essential to our
success in the EUR and NAT Regions over the past seven decades, and we will be
counting on it even more in the years ahead.”
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