Raymond Benjamin, ICAO Secretary General (left) and Matthias Ruete, European Commission, Director-General for Energy and Transport (right)
MONTRÉAL, 18 March 2013 – The Joint Committee of the European Union (EU) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) met at the UN aviation body’s Montréal Headquarters today, acting to adopt a new aviation Security Annex to their recently-established Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC).
“This new Security Annex formalizes important areas of deepening EU/ICAO cooperation, such as the exchange of relevant security information and available expertise, as well as the financing of specific security initiatives,” stressed Raymond Benjamin, ICAO Secretary General. Benjamin served as co-chair of the meeting with Matthias Ruete, European Commission, Director-General for Energy and Transport.
At its first meeting in 2011, the EU/ICAO Joint Committee adopted an aviation Safety Annex to their new MOC. It also established a working arrangement between the EU and ICAO in the field of accident and incident reporting. Based on discussions at this first meeting, as well as work undertaken in the interim period, EU and ICAO participants to today’s gathering also agreed in principle on two draft working arrangements developed to consolidate EU/ICAO safety oversight auditing efforts.
Though the Joint Committee’s initial emphasis has been on formalizing the two organizations’ aviation safety and security priorities, both sides expressed strong support today for pursuing further collaboration in the other areas covered by their MOC, notably, Air Traffic Management.
