Daniel Calleja Crespo, 欧洲联盟委员会能源和运输总局
Release Date: 2009-01-23
What have been the key successes and challenges to overcome since taking this position in 2004? What have been the most interesting results of opening EU air transport markets internally?Over the past 15 years, the European air transport landscape has been revolutionised. We have integrated what used to be fragmented and protected national markets into one single market for aviation. We have created the world's largest and most successful example of regional market integration and liberalisation. The EU air transport sector is undoubtedly one of the success stories of the European single market. The legal and regulatory framework for air transport in Europe is increasingly being shaped at European level based on common rules in practically all areas of aviation.
Aviation is a fast-developing sector with constantly new challenges emerging. The further development of the EU aviation market is therefore a continued work in progress.
The results so far of the EU aviation market have been spectacular in terms of consumer benefits due to more competition, more airlines, better service and more choice to the consumers. More routes to new cities and remote areas are constantly being opened.
Due to the lifting of all restrictions on market access and pricing and with common rules for licensing of Community carriers applied across the entire single market, we have witnessed a very dynamic market develop with different business models being applied including low-cost carriers.
As the world economy in general, the aviation industry is going through a turbulent period which raises new challenges. The overriding EU aviation policy priority is therefore now to ensure a sustainable growth of the aviation sector.
A key challenge of future EU aviation policy will therefore be to secure the conditions for a strong performing European aviation industry that will be competitive in providing services in open markets based on the highest safety and security standards. Growth must be sustainable and the environmental footprint of the aviation sector must therefore be properly addressed in view of the increasing global warming threat. Due to the expected growth in air traffic, we are also facing a capacity crunch in Europe both on the ground and in the air. We are working hard to implement a more functional Single European Sky including the deployment of a new generation of air traffic management technology that will increase capacity, reduce delays and pollution. We wish to cooperate with China in facing all these ?common ?challenges.
I'm very proud of how far aviation has come from regulatory, organizational, and technological perspectives through the adoption of a cutting edge ATM system that creates time and cost efficiencies while reducing harm to the environment. Today, my Directorate's priorities are horizontal agreements to restore legal certainty to our external aviation relations, safety (i.e. reaching international agreements on the certification of aircraft), and the many aspects of the Single European Sky ATM revolution. Passing the second Single European Sky package (SESII) is our biggest priority before year end 2008. This will provide binding dates (2012 at the latest) for Functional Airspace Blocks in Europe, thus greatly improving capacity and reducing environmental harm. The implementation of this alone will reduce aviation-related CO2 emissions by around 10%.
The Single European Sky initiative is now 45 years in the making, and it's just reaching it's most critical evolution through the second European Sky package (SESII),which us now up for approval by the European Commission. How are you dealing with possible obstacles such as securing financing for the deployment of new equipment and including all key actors in the decision making process in a way that creates the perception of a 'just culture'?
The SES Regulations have a clause to allow for revision of their application. The European aviation sector held an important aviation conference in January 2008 to agree on the principles that would inform the European system in the future from the point of view of its governance and principles. We decided then to revise SES using the key principles agreed upon in the conference.
One of the main principles recommended using the Community method to provide with better regulation and to assure close cooperation amongst all relevant stakeholders (the European Community, its Member States, the military community, the industry, the social partners and even those non-EU countries that are being associates to SES through agreements signed with). In principle we have the best possible stakeholder consultation method to reach consensus on any SES-related measure through the already establish SES institutional bodies such as the Single Sky Committee and the Industry Consultation Body.
Concerning SESAR, the SES ATM research programme, we have just entered in 2008 the Development Phase where a specific entity, the SESAR Joint Undertaking (JU), has been set up to manage this phase and the proper execution of the ATM Master Plan. The JU ensures the involvement of all the stakeholders of the ATM sector, since it is a public-private partnership that includes the participation of the whole industry and even open to third countries' industries and governmental organisations.
This organisation is reflected in the financing framework of the SESAR Development Phase, which will be endowed with €2.1 billion over the next 8 years in the period 2008-2016, to be funded at equal third parts by the JU two founding members (the European Commission and Eurocontrol) and by other members from the industry and non-EU countries. The latter include today a very representative sample of air navigation service providers, airport operators and the manufacturing industry. We are finalising these days the first round of JU membership and we will launch a second round for the period 2009-2010.
How difficult has it been to balance the possibly conflicting needs of key partners like EUROCONTROL and the EU Membership?
Another of the key principles agreed in the January 2008 Aviation Conference was that the European Agency Eurocontrol should be empowered to play a key role in delivering SES and SESAR objectives within the strategic and regulatory framework set by the EU. In such a situation Eurocontrol would focus its activities on pan-European functions and ATM network design, and support SES regulation with its technical expertise as requested by the European Commission and its Member States. The Agency is perfectly positioned to play such a role provided that it continues its efforts to complete its internal reorganisation and re-adjusts to SES and SESAR objectives. We have already worked together, the European Commission and Eurocontrol, during the first phase of SES and have established a consolidated system of mandates to use the excellent technical expertise of the Agency in drafting EU legislation. I think that the new functions that are envisaged in SESII to be played by Eurocontrol will show the significant value that both institutions will provide to the establishment of an innovative and efficient performing ATM system in Europe.
What concrete results in key areas like delays, pollution, and costs, will be delivered through the delivery of an optimised ATM network?
The European industry analysed the benefits that SESAR and SESII could bring in to these Key Performance Areas during the SESAR Definition Phase and concluded that the development of new equipment and technologies coupled with new regulatory mechanisms introduced though SESII such as a Performance Regulation and a Network Management Function would enable a three-fold increase in capacity, improve safety by a factor of 10, reduce by 10% the environmental impact per flight and cut ATM costs by 50%.
And this is only as long as intra-European benefits are concerned. If we look outside the European Union, there are also many gains to achieve in a similar way. We are pioneering the AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) initiative with the United States in order to maximise flight efficiency and cut down on fuel burn, and to implement common and interoperable procedures. We intend to put in place very soon the same type of initiative with other parts of the world like Asia, South America and Oceania.
What are the latest trends and priorities in validation projects and the DG's strategic research agenda?
The SESAR ATM Master Plan provides the roadmap for the development and deployment phases of the SESAR programme with the ultimate aim to implement the ATM Target Concept for 2020. This Master Plan will introduce ATM service and ATM capability levels to describe the performance characteristics to which all (air and ground) components of the future ATM system will be linked. And for the first time R&D will be subject to a performance-based approach and validation will play a key role to identify the different stages of development, and, above all, the maturity of the new concepts for deployment.
The results of a high-profile Eurocontrol study released in November 2008 clearly show that on-the-ground congestion at Europe's busiest airports throughout the next two decades will be the biggest single constraint to system efficiency. How can these airports be included in the overall improvement agenda?
Traffic is expected to continue to grow at European airports with increased congestion at the major hubs. Even smaller airports are expected to be saturated at least at certain times during the day. At the same time we see that very small airports have an overcapacity and therefore try to attract traffic to increase their profitability.
The European Commission has therefore proposed a number of actions to address this situation with a capacity crunch at the large airports and overcapacity at the smaller airports. An airport capacity observatory has been established, where the Commission can discuss these issues with EU Member States and industry representatives. The observatory will also develop a common EU methodology for assessing capacity, which will be useful tool for identifying areas for further action.
In addition, the EU has adopted or is in the process of adopting rules for more efficient use of existing capacity based on international principles endorsed by IATA and ICAO.
The EU will also soon adopt a directive on airport charges based on three ICAO principles: transparency, consultation and non-discrimination which will further increase the efficiency of existing capacity. Firstly, the directive will make certain that airport charges are set in a transparent way by obliging airports to provide airlines with information on the costs. Airlines can then during the consultation give their views on how to improve the airports' efficiency. Secondly, increased transparency also applies to allocation of terminal capacity. Airports will have to motivate to the airlines how scarce terminal capacity is allocated: such as check-in counters. The Commission is convinced that more transparent allocation procedures will increase the efficiency of the overall capacity allocation. Thirdly, the directive will open up for adjusting airport charges to the level of congestion. This may be used to encourage use the airports over the whole day, by increasing the level of charges during the congested times of the day and lowering when there is less demand.
There are also specific rules on the allocation of slots at congested EU airports which are mainly based on IATA's guidelines for slot allocation. These rules ensure efficient slot allocation while respecting fundamental principles of slot allocation such as the principle of grandfather rights. For example, new airlines have entered Heathrow airport with larger aircraft following the 'open skies' agreement between the EU and the US which has further increased the number of passengers using this already very congested airport.
What results will SESAR yield with regard to ICAO key performance indicators?
The SESAR Performance Framework is structured around the 11 ICAO Key Performance Areas (KPAs) thus allowing a mix of quantified requirements (i.e. objectives with performance targets) and qualitative requirements (i.e. performance objectives without quantitative targets).
There is no doubt that the European Commission is committed to ensure that Europe be the first region of the world to put in place an efficient performance regulatory framework. Let me point out again that one of the key cornerstones of SESII will be the adoption of a Community performance regulation establishing performance targets and indicators on four of the main KPAs: safety, environment, capacity and cost-efficiency. In addition, the European Commission and Eurocontrol have jointly presented a number of important papers in the recently held Conference on the Economics of Airports and Air Navigation Services (CEANS) organised by the ICAO in September 2008. We have introduced in detail in that context the proposed framework we intend to put in place with two essential elements: an independent performance review body would help the Commission in assessing the state of the air navigation services industry in Europe, and European network-wide performance targets should be set as an overall requirement for setting subsequent local performance targets. In this state of things, national supervisory authorities would be responsible for organising wide consultation to secure agreement on such local performance targets throughout Europe.
This proposed performance framework is indeed fully in line with the conclusions approved by the ICAO Secretariat in the CEANS Conference.
What will be the impact on worldwide interoperability?
During the SESAR/NextGen Forum at ICAO in September 2008 it was agreed that it is crucial to initiate a process for sharing developments in the SESAR and NextGen systems, identifying both commonalities and differences between the systems and highlighting how the harmonisation and interoperability efforts will benefit the global community. Therefore it is also envisaged to open this process to other countries and regions of the world. International cooperation is a top priority for the SESAR Joint Undertaking. SESAR will be developed within ICAO's Operational Concept so that it becomes a real vector for global standardisation and interoperability. This is why we the European front formed by the Commission, the SESAR JU and Eurocontrol are already organising technical meetings and workshops with significant aviation countries. The first one was held in Beijing with the People's Republic of China on 21 October and it was quite a success to disseminate SESAR's know-how outside Europe. We are going to be quite busy doing the same job during 2009 with other important countries all over the world.
How does the EC's external political agenda relate to regulatory issues? What is the true Impact of bilateral agreements such as the recent horizontal agreement with India?
The EU wishes to extend the benefits of the single internal market to our external relations with the world at large. We are pursuing this based on an EU external aviation policy adopted by the Council of Member State Transport Ministers in 2005. This EU external aviation policy is based on three key pillars: bringing existing bilateral air services agreements into line with Community law, creating a 'Common Aviation Area' with neighbouring countries, and concluding ambitious global agreements with key partners such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, China and Russia.
Over the past 3-4 years, we have made very significant progress in implementing the external aviation policy across all three pillars. On the issue of restoring legal certainty to the bilateral air services agreements between EU Member States and foreign countries, nearly 100 non-EU states have now agreed to bring bilateral agreements into conformity with EU law including recognising the principle of Community designation of airlines within the EU as a result of the creation of the single market. This has allowed us to bring more than 750 bilateral agreements on a sound legal footing most of which through so-called 'Horizontal Agreements' between the EU and non-EU states such as the agreement we signed with India at the EU-India Summit at the end of September 2008. This agreement was very significant as it creates legal certainty for the airlines involved in commercial operations and as it has allowed us to move forward with cooperation with India in many other areas.
We are well advanced in extending the single EU aviation markets to include neighbouring countries to the south and east of the EU and we are increasingly involved in negotiations of comprehensive air services agreements with key partners such as the United States, Canada and Australia based on a combination of market opening and regulatory convergence in order to ensure a level playing field.
At the same time, China is a strategic partner with which we wish to enhance cooperation in a broad range of aviation areas. Today, however, EU-China aviation relations are in my view not being exploited to their full potential and should therefore be given new impetus. The bilateral air services relations - which represent an increasingly important enabler for the overall EU-China trade and tourism relations - remain based on legally insecure and unsustainable agreements. China is one of the very few remaining important aviation nations that still do not recognise the Community in aviation. Regrettably, this hampers cooperation in other areas and it is therefore important that this issue is resolved as a matter of highest priority as also called for by our respective political leaders on a number of occasions.
To what extent have undertakings such as 2005 EU-China Aviation Summit on aviation relations, EU-China Civil Aviation Cooperation Project, and EU 'Approved Destination Status' for Chinese travelers brought us closer to concluding an EU-China horizontal agreement and other envisioned collaborations?
We were very pleased with the first EU-China Aviation Summit that we organised so successfully in Beijing in 2005 together with the Chinese aviation authorities. The EU (Member State governments, the European Commission and the entire EU aviation industry) had hoped that the 2005 aviation summit would mark the beginning of new era in our aviation cooperation with China including as a first step restoring legal certainty to the bilateral air services agreements. Insufficient progress has been made in this respect since 2005 and it is therefore important that the EU and China together now engage seriously in finding a mutually acceptable solution to this matter.
We consider that the EU and China both have much to gain from closer cooperation in a vast range of areas. We therefore strongly believe that it is in our mutual interest to restore legal certainty to the existing bilateral air services agreements that underpins our aviation relations. This could also open up for a new EU-China Aviation Cooperation Project with the aim of continuing technical cooperation as we so successfully pursued it in the first project.
Just as much as China, the EU strongly wishes to reinforce our cooperation in a much wider range of areas in civil aviation (ATM, security, safety, training, environment, capacity building, economic regulation etc). The legal issue - which we need to resolve anyway and which our leaders repeatedly have asked us to resolve - should not stand in the way for such progress and closer co-operation in other areas of aviation. We must avoid that ?and together we must find a way forward.
Aviation is vital for our relations and air traffic between China and the EU is growing fast ?partly as a result of the EU 'Approved Destination Status'. Since 2004, the actual number of passengers flying between China and the EU has increased by nearly 55% to 5.2 million in 2007. For cargo, the growth has been even more spectacular with a growth of 130% since 2004. In particular Chinese carriers have grown their business fast in these years ?faster than their European competitors.
As Director Air Transport of the EC Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, what is the final message that you would like to convey to the readers of International Business Daily readers
The aviation community in most parts of the world shares the same challenges as the EU does today: how to maintain high safety and security levels with rapid growth in air traffic; how to make aviation growth environmentally sustainable; how to ensure adequate infrastructure and technology to meet future demand; and how to most effectively cooperate internationally in an increasingly globalised market place.
The aviation sector is global by its very nature and there is an increasing need for world-wide cooperation as many shared and global problems need global solutions. Whereas approaches are and may remain different, some degree of interoperability and interface is required as a minimum. International technological cooperation, for example, is therefore important in order to ensure interoperability and cost-effective solutions such as in relation to international air traffic management.
The EU considers China to be a strategic partner also in aviation. However, our cooperation in aviation is not contributing as much as it should to the overall strategic partnership and we must therefore inject new impetus into our aviation relations to the mutual benefit of both sides.
The potential for technical, commercial and regulatory aviation cooperation between the EU and China is enormous. Let us exploit it to its full potential!
I am confident that during 2009 ?or the Chinese year of the Ox ?we will make significant progress in enhancing EU-China aviation cooperation. We have proposed to organize a second high level aviation summit with China ?the last one was in 2005 ?that we hope could pave the way at a later stage for an ambitious 'open skies' air services agreement between China and the EU similar to that reached with the US in March 2008. I was the lead negotiator in that agreement. We are keen on building on that success, this time with China in 2009.
The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint. We will be working like oxes to enhance our aviation cooperation with China next year, during which I also hope we will be able to jointly organise the second EU-China Aviation Summit as a platform for taking our cooperation forward.
Chinese decision makers are increasingly interested in sustainable development. What is your message on the environmental regarding the EU's revolutionary policies?
Our €1.6 billion Clean Sky Initiative that promotes the development of new 'greener' aircraft will be an ongoing priority. It is closely linked to the progressive and rational ethos which has us taking leadership at the ICAO in pushing for market-based measures on emissions caused by air transport.
Europe is pioneering a global agreement within ICAO. We urge all countries in the world to join forces to ensure that aviation makes its contribution to fighting global warming.
| Company: | 欧洲联盟委员会能源和运输总局 |
| Position: | Director Air Transport |
| Country: | 比利时 |