EU-US cooperation on civil aviation safety

KEY POINTS

The agreement seeks to achieve:

• reciprocal acceptance by the USA and the EU of each other’s compliance and approvals issued by the respective aviation authorities and their technical advisors;
• a high level of safety in air transport;
• continuing close cooperation on regulations and harmonisation between the USA and the EU in the following areas (revised by Amendment 1), including
  • airworthiness approvals and monitoring of civil aeronautical products, such as aircraft or aircraft parts
  • environmental testing and approvals of civil aeronautical products
  • approvals and monitoring of maintenance facilities
  • personnel licensing and training
  • aircraft operation and
  • air-traffic services and air-traffic management.

For each of these areas, the two parties will develop annexes to the agreement describing the terms and conditions for reciprocal acceptance of compliance and approvals, when civil aviation standards, rules, practices and procedures are sufficiently compatible in that area.

The parties also agree that any technical differences between their civil aviation systems will be dealt with in the annexes.

A Bilateral Oversight Board is set up to ensure that the agreement is effective, in particular:

• handling disputes;
• amending the annexes as appropriate;
• providing a forum for discussion on
  • issues or changes that could affect the agreement’s implementation
  • common approaches to safety and environmental issues
  • sharing information on aviation safety concerns
  • draft regulations and legislation by either party;
• sharing information on planned organisational changes;
• adopting additional annexes as appropriate;
• making proposals to amend the agreement.

Initial annexes adopted as part of the agreement

1. Airworthiness and environmental certification;
2. Maintenance.