Air safety: third-country aircrafts using Community airports, SAFA programme

The Commission's amended proposal accepts 13 out of the 19 amendments proposed by the European Parliament. These amendments aim to: - emphasise that Union is not asking from third countries what the Community is not already doing itself; - emphasise that monitoring of safety standards is necessary for all aircraft; - emphasise that the effectiveness of ramp inspections is guaranteed by the application of uniform methods; - emphasise that Community action is not aimed at third countries as such but at aircraft - from third countries - that fail to comply with internationally agreed safety standards; - introduces the concept of spot-checks procedure. This procedure is already applied in practice by several Member States; - increased monitoring of aircraft or airlines previously deficient; - ensuring that best use is made of existing safety data; - emphasises that this directive and the creation of the European Air Safety Agency will take due account of existing procedures and knowledge. In the original proposal, ramp inspections could only be carried out if an aircraft was suspected of non-compliance with international safety standards. The modified wording allows that spot-checks are also carried out, providing they are non-discriminatory. In order to avoid that documents published may lead to misinterpretation which could be detrimental to the reputation of the parties involved, a sentence has been added to ensure that technical information are presented in a comprehensible way. A new sentence is also added to inform the public of the action taken on its complaints by the authorities. A new sub-sentence was added to be more precise regarding possible measures to improve safety in the originating countries.�