Europe’s new aviation regulator, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), has announced a new set of priorities for its responsibilities covering aviation regulation. The announcement follows a stern warning from EASA’s political masters at the European Commission that the Agency was taking on responsibility for areas of aviation regulation that were outside of its scope.

Now, the Agency has been told by the commission to effectively stop re-inventing the wheel and instead adopt existing legislation as laid out by EASA’s predecessors, the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA).

“We have listened to our stakeholders and agreed on an approach which will allow for a smooth transition,” said Patrick Goudou, the Agency’s executive director at a management board meeting held on the 15 September. “Our proposals will be based on existing legislation and safety standards.”

Zoltan Kazatsay, Deputy Director-General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission said: “Changes to existing rules will only be proposed if justified by safety considerations.”

In other words, the Agency has had its wings clipped.

Under the new agreement it has been decided that there will now be a phased publication of Agency proposals, giving priority to Flight Crew Licensing and Commercial Air Transport (CAT). Transition phases of 1-2 years are being introduced in order to allow Member States and industry to better adapt to the new rules and the Agency says it is also committed to a “streamlined comment review process” in order to better highlight the changes in the regulatory text and guidance material.

All EASA opinions related to the first extension (FCL, Air Operations and Third Country Operators) will be published by mid-2011 so that the respective Commission regulations can be adopted by April 2012. The implementing rules for the second extension will be adopted by the end of 2012 for Air Traffic Management/Navigation Services, and by 2013 for Aerodromes. A full report will appear in the October edition of Flight Training News, out early next month.