2008 discharge: SESAR Joint Undertaking SJU

2009/2188(DEC)

PURPOSE: to present the final accounts of the SESAR Joint Undertaking for the year 2008.

CONTENT: this document sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the SESAR Joint Undertaking for 2008.  It indicates that the final budget for 2007-2008 for the undertaking was EUR 1 560.21 million, with a Community contribution of 10.3 % from the 7th Research Programme.  Around 90 % of the funding from Eurocontrol and the other stakeholders will take the form of in-kind contributions.

To recall, the SESAR Joint Undertaking was established in February 2007 in order to manage the activities of the SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research) project.

The SESAR project aims to modernise air traffic management (ATM) in Europe and is divided into three phases:

  • Definition phase’ started in 2005 and led by the European Organisation for Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), with co-financing from the Community budget through the Trans European Network — Transport programme. The outcome is the European ATM Master Plan, which defines the content, the development and deployment plans of the next generation of ATM systems;
  • ‘Development phase’ (2008-2013) managed by the SESAR Joint Undertaking (see also the Table) and leading to the production of new technological systems, components and operational procedures as defined in the European ATM Master Plan;
  • ‘Deployment phase’ (2014-2020) to be led by industry and stakeholders, for the large-scale production and implementation of the new air traffic management infrastructure.

The Joint Undertaking is designed as a public-private partnership. The founding members are the European Community represented by the European Commission, and Eurocontrol represented by its Agency. Following a call for expressions of interest, 15 public and private enterprises from the air navigation industry are candidate members of the Joint Undertaking. These include air navigation service providers, ground and aerospace manufacturing industry, aircraft manufacturers, airport authorities and airborne equipment manufacturers.

The SESAR JU started to work autonomously on 10 August 2007.

In terms of staff, the joint undertaking, whose is in Brussels, has 23 posts in the establishment plan, of which 14 are occupied with 8 staff seconded from the Joint Undertaking members as part of their in-kind contribution. They are assigned to assigned operational tasks, administrative and support tasks, and mixed tasks.

During the year 2007-2008, the joint undertaking mainly carried out the following activities:

  • establishment of the SESAR Joint Undertaking structure including staff recruitment, procedures preparation, policies and processes definition;
  • re-design of the Joint Undertaking structure in order to align it with the new JTIs’ legal model;
  • preparation, negotiation, discussion and launch of the membership process involving 15 candidate members for the realisation of around 300 projects framed in 16 Work Packages;
  • preparation and initial establishment of the Work Programme Management structure;
  • establishment of the framework for international cooperation;
  • launch of operational activities (Industrial Support contract, AIRE initiative);
  • launch of communication activities;
  • launch of 16 procurement procedures for different administrative, technical and operational activities.