Challenges of institutional changes in Europe

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19th Annual FAA / JAA International Conference

• Challenges of institutional changes in Europe
• ______
• Establishing the European Aviation Safety Agency
• or
• Building on proved expertise and achievements
• ______
• C. ProbstEuropean Commission

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Presentation Plan
- Building the house

• to put in place the organisational, regulatory
  and human infrastructure.

- Moving into the house
to transfer actually certification and oversight
tasks from JAA/NAAs to the Agency.
This paper concentrates on airworthiness /
continued airworthiness.
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Building the house

• 1) Rule-making process (art. 43)
• The Executive Director is obliged to follow a
  standardised process set by the Management Board
  (ARAC, NPRM, working groups?)
• Aim to ensuring transparency and proper
  involvement of regulated persons without
  affecting independence of the regulators.
• Should be adopted by the end of the year to
  process new EU regulations and advisory material.

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Building the house

• 2) The new EU regulatory material
• - Implementing Rules (IR) - include technical
  requirements and administrative procedures
  binding on regulated persons and national
  administrations. IR 21, 34, 36, 39, to be
  adopted by the Commission by July 2003.
• - Airworthiness codes - Agencys specifications
  representing its own interpretation of the
  essential requirements. To be adopted by the
  Agency by July 2003.
• - Advisory and guidance material - Best
  practices and means of compliance. To be adopted
  by the Agency by July 2003.

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Building the house

• 3) Agency implementation procedures (art. 44)
• EASA regulation requires the Management Board to
  adopt the administrative procedures to be
  followed by the Agency when checking conformity
  with the essential requirements and its own
  technical specifications.
• Procedure based on best practices to be adopted
  in July 2003.

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Building the house

• 4) The inspection / standardisation system
• To ensure uniform implementation of EU law and
  real equivalence of approvals / certificates,
  national administrations are subject to common
  inspection.
• Procedures to be adopted by the Commission on
  the basis of best practices (peer review,
  internal / external audit) during the second half
  of 2003.

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Building the house

• 5) Staffing
• Work being done on structure and staffing of the
  Agency for discussions of the budget by the
  Management Board in October 2002.
• Local offices / in house staffing /
  externalisation of tasks are parts of the
  equation.
• Negotiations to take place with national
  administrations to find a balance allowing the
  Agency to hire its own staff while maintaining
  sufficient resources at national level for Member
  States to execute their own tasks.

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Moving into the house

• 1) New and on-going certification tasks
• a) European products
• Certification teams, composed of Agency or
  seconded national experts, work for the Agency
  which issues the certificates. Existing teams
  continue their work under Agency authority
  contractual link with national administrations to
  be discussed.
• Keeping a JAA-type co-ordination under Agency
  auspices to be discussed for a transitional
  period.
• b) Imported products
• Validation by the Agency under a bilateral
  agreement between the Community and the third
  country concerned.

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Moving into the house

• 2) The transfer of type certificates
• Type certificate to be re-issued by the Agency
  on the basis of State of design TC (or reference
  TC for imported product).
• Other designs approved by Member States
  considered acceptable changes to reference TC and
  are aggregated in EASA re-issued TC.

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The transfer of type certificates

• In that case responsibility for non-transferred
  products remain with national authorities
  (maximum 42 months). JAA co-ordination to be
  maintained for those products.
• Transition scheme to be discussed bearing in mind
  that

- transfer to the Agency of the oversight of
imported products is facilitated by a bilateral
agreement - continued oversight of European
products by their State of design is easier to
accept by third country partners.
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The transfer of type certificates

• This process is

- time and resources consuming - confusing the
sharing of roles during the transition -
imposing on Member States responsibilities they
may not be willing or able to accept
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The transfer of type certificates

• Another option based on grand-fathering existing
  type certificates to be examined

- IR 21 confirms the validity of TC issued by
Member States - Agency to re-issue its own TC if
and when it sees fit
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Moving into the house

• 3) The transfer of parts and appliances approval
• Design approved by the Agency.
• Conformity assessment done at national level.
• The transfer strategies mentioned before are
  equally valid for parts and appliances.

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Moving into the house

• 4) The transfer of design organisations approvals
• DOAs issued by the Agency, except if bilateral
  agreement specifies differently.
• Transfer to be discussed taking into account
  strategy decided for the transfer of products.
• Grand-fathering attractive to holders.

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Conclusion

• - Work for building the house is well under way.
  Target of summer 2003 shall be met. Most
  challenging point is staffing.
• - Moving into the house is however much more
  difficult. Strategy for transfer of
  responsibilities and tasks to be decided before
  the end of the year.

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Conclusion

• - There should be no safety gap
• - The exercise of Community powers should not be
  unduly postponed
• - The burden on the industry should be minimum
• - There should be no confusion of roles and
  responsibilities
• - Recognised experts should be able to continue
  doing what they currently do, within arrangements
  which best suit them and the efficiency of the
  new system
• - JAA-type co-ordination, managed by the Agency,
  can be maintained during a limited period of time
  to facilitate building confidence in the new
  system.