§ Sir Teddy TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the purpose is of establishing the European Aviation Safety Agency; what powers it has in the United Kingdom; what its estimated annual cost is; and where it is located. [128822]
§ Mr. McNultyThe European Aviation Safety Agency has been established under Regulation (EC) 1592/2002. The principle objective of that Regulation is to establish and maintain a high uniform level of civil aviation safety in Europe.
The Agency has a pivotal role in achieving that objective through the drafting of common safety rules; through monitoring, where applicable, the implementation of those rules by member states' national aviation authorities; and through carrying out itself a number of certification tasks, initially mainly in the field of aircraft and product designs.
The Regulation gives the Agency all the necessary powers to carry out these duties in the United Kingdom, in particular powers to carry out relevant investigations for issuing certificates to UK applicants and for conducting standardisation audits of the Civil Aviation Authority.
The Agency is due to assume its certification responsibilities on 28 September 2003, initially outsourcing much of the work to national aviation authorities. The Agency's own staff will be built up over time and its annual costs will depend on decisions yet to be made by the Executive Director about the Agency's structure and working methods. A preliminary draft budget for 2004 of 17.24 M€ has been agreed by the EASA Management Board, of which the majority of the costs will be met out of Community funds.
A decision about the permanent location of the Agency has not yet been made. It has established a temporary headquarters in Brussels.