EUROPEAN CIVIL AVIATION CONFERENCE - CONFÉRENCE EUROPÉENNE DE L'AVIATION CIVILE

Focus on European priorities and ambitions for the 41st ICAO Assembly at Directors General meeting in Sorrento

Sorrento/videoconference, 25-27 August 2022 — President of the Italian Civil Aviation Administration (ENAC), Pierluigi di Palma, welcomed the Directors General of Civil Aviation to Sorrento for their annual Special meeting (DGCA/71(SP)), where they were joined by observers from the European Commission, EUROCONTROL, EASA, the ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office and JAA TO.

As this was the last gathering of ECAC Directors General before the 41st ICAO Assembly, strategic discussions focused on European priorities to be brought to the international arena, and on the upcoming ICAO Council elections. ICAO Council representatives of France, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands briefed the meeting on the outcome of the 226th session of the ICAO Council and on priorities for forthcoming discussions in the Assembly, while the ICAO EUR/NAT regional director gave an overview of upcoming regional activities.

On ECAC-specific issues, Directors General reconfirmed the added value of the ECAC Common Evaluation Process of security equipment (CEP) to all Member States and adopted a CEP roadmap for 2022-2024, supported the proposal for a one-year no-cost extension of the CASE II Project, and agreed to organise a joint ECAC-ICAO EUR/NAT regional workshop on assistance to aircraft accident victims and their families on 20 February 2023 in Italy. They heard updates on EU aviation developments from the European Commission, while the Director General of Civil Aviation of Czechia, whose country holds the EU Presidency for the second half of 2022, briefed the meeting on Czechia’s objectives during its tenure of the Presidency. EASA and EUROCONTROL presented their organisations’ recent developments, and JAA TO gave an update on the organisation’s training activities.