Azerbaijan joins Plenary Session of European Civil Aviation Conference

A delegation of the State Civil Aviation Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan has participated in the 33rd Plenary Session of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC/33) held on July 10-11 in Strasbourg.

According to the press service of the State Civil Aviation Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Directors General of the 44 ECAC Member States came together with high level representatives from a wide range of ICAO Member States and international organizations, including ICAO itself, IATA, ACI/Europe and AEA, to name only a few, in order to debate current issues in international civil aviation and establish the ECAC work programme and budget for the next three years.

The Plenary Session heard addresses by the President of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation Roberto Kobeh Gonzales, as well as by the Head of the Cabinet of the Vice President of the European Commission Henrik Hololei, and by the CEO and Director General of IATA, Tony Tyler.

The first day of the Plenary was devoted to strategic discussions focused on what should be the ambitions of the European States for next years 38th Session of the ICAO Assembly in Montreal. The economics of aviation, aviation and environment, aviation security, and aviation safety and air traffic management were each debated, in panel sessions whose members included senior figures in European aviation and beyond. At the conclusion of these discussions, reflections upon them and a perspective on the 2013 ICAO Assembly were offered by Mr Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General of ICAO.

In the course of the Plenary, ECAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IATA on cooperation in aviation safety and security matters, and a joint work programme for 2013-15 with the Arab Civil Aviation Commission.

The meeting took certain formal decisions in relation to ECACs principal officer appointments, work programme and budget for the next three years. It re-elected Catalin Radu (Director General of Civil Aviation for Romania) as ECAC President, and appointed Bilal Eksi, Patrick Gandil and Jonathan Moor (Directors General of Civil Aviation for Turkey, France and the United Kingdom, respectively) as ECAC Vice-Presidents.

At the close of the meeting, Catalin Radu thanked its 170 participants for their contributions to what had proved to be fascinating, sometimes challenging, discussions, on which all would wish to reflect as ideas now began to be pulled together for specific proposals and positions to be taken to the next ICAO Assembly.


/AzerTAc/