Event To Take Place In Rome In October

The European Aviation Safety Agency is planning a conference on GA to take place in Rome on October 15th and 16th under the Italian Presidency of the EU. IAOPA believes that because of fundamental shifts in attitude that EASA is currently showing this conference could represent a pivotal moment for European GA, and Senior Vice President Martin Robinson has offered EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky the association’s full support for the changes he intends to make.

Ky is looking at the way in which the UK is trying to improve regulation of GA by cutting red tape, and among those invited to speak at the conference is British politician Grant Shapps MP, a private pilot who is conveying a wish-list from general aviation to the government.

Martin Robinson says: “It is clear to me from speaking to people in the European Commission that they also fully support Mr Ky in his quest to make improvements in the way EASA operates," Robinson said. "IAOPA has been battering away at the Commission for more than a decade trying to get it to address the GA issues that EASA has thrown up, and in turn the Commission has become increasingly – and sometimes publicly – exasperated at EASA as it continued to plod along in the same old way.

"But change at the top, with Patrick Ky taking over from Patrick Goudou at the end of last year, seems to be making a genuine difference. EASA is becoming much more open to discussion and debate, and it’s being proactive about telling industry what it’s doing and why. The old way of paying lip service to consultation and issuing orders from on high may have fallen out of favour. Patrick Ky seems to be fashioning a more confident, less defensive EASA that’s better able to create regulation that is suited to general aviation.”

With the Green Party looking like securing the Chairmanship of the EU Transport Committee, it's never been more important for our industry to have a robust defence.

FMI: www.easa.europa.eu, www.iaopa.org