Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

EU/Brazil Agreement: civil aviation safety

2010/0143(NLE)

This document outlines the content of the Agreement between the European Union and Brazil on civil aviation safety.

Its main provisions are as follows:

Purpose: the objectives of the agreement are:

  • to establish, consistent with the legislation in force within each Party, principles and arrangements in order to enable the reciprocal acceptance of approvals issued by either Party's Competent Authorities in the field of civil aviation;
  • to allow the Parties to adapt to the emerging trend toward multinational design, manufacture, maintenance, and interchange of civil aeronautical products, involving the common interests of the Parties concerning civil aviation safety and environmental quality;
  • to promote cooperation toward sustaining safety and environmental quality objectives;
  • to promote and facilitate the continuing exchange of civil aeronautical products and services.

General obligations: the Agreement lays down the general principle of acceptance and recognition of evaluation procedures of the conformity of aeronautical services detailed in the scope of the Agreement of each of the parties, by means of specified legislative, regulatory and administrative measures. However, the Agreement shall not be construed to entail reciprocal acceptance of standards or technical regulations of the Parties and shall not entail the mutual recognition of the equivalence of standards or technical regulations.

Scope: the Agreement applies to:

  • the airworthiness approval and monitoring of civil aeronautical products;
  • the continuing airworthiness of in-service aircraft;
  • the approval and monitoring of production and manufacturing facilities;
  • the approval and monitoring of maintenance facilities;
  • the environmental approval and environmental testing of civil aeronautical products;
  • related cooperative activities; and
  • safety initiatives and exchange of relevant safety information.

Once the principle of acceptance of rules and standards of one or the other party is established, a procedure of notification and information exchange is foreseen to keep each of the parties aware of the acceptance of the rules and standards in question.

Safeguard measures: nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to limit the authority of a party to take all appropriate and immediate measures whenever there is a reasonable risk that a product or a service may compromise the health or safety of persons or not meet the applicable legislative, regulatory, or administrative measures of that party within the scope of this Agreement.

The Agreement also provides for:

  • cooperation in the area of safety policy thanks to transparency and exchange of information regarding safety;
  • regular consultation between the parties;
  • the rapid resolution of differences.