HL Deb 11 July 1988 vol 499 cc703-4WA
Lord Brougham and Vaux

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What action the Permanent Commission of Eurocontrol decided to take at their meeting on 5th July 1988 over the problem of airspace congestion over Europe.

Lord Brabazon of Tara

The Permanent Commission of Eurocontrol, meeting under my presidency, decided on a comprehensive programme of action, much of it suggested by the UK, to overcome the urgent problems of European air traffic control. It agreed:

  1. (a) that member states should pool relevant information about systems, procedures and plans;
  2. (b) that the Eurocontrol agency should investigate ways of relieving congestion in the airways in the short-term;
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  3. (c) that the agency should identify all serious incompatibilities between member states' systems, procedures and plans and recommend ways of removing them;
  4. (d) that the agency should, jointly with other European authorities, assess the capacity of European airspace likely to be available by 1995;
  5. (e) that the agency should press forward with the development of its common medium-term plan for air traffic control in member states, giving particular attention to co-ordination and harmonisation, and should draw up a strategy for improving the efficiency of air traffic management; and
  6. (f) that it should draft specifications for the next generation of air traffic control systems.

The commission also approved proposals, originated by the British delegation, for developing Eurocontrol's central data bank as a means of improving the future operation of flow management. The commission called for a progress report on all this work in time for their next meeting in November. The commission adopted a declaration of principle in favour of the availability of additional funds for this work and endorsed an expanding five-year plan.