Doc. 10799
24 January 2006

The need to enhance European air safety

Motion for a resolution
presented by Mrs Periclous Papadopoulos and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it

1.       Air safety on charter flights in Europe has been seriously compromised in recent months and necessitates urgent action by Council of Europe member states. In August 2005 a charter flight from Italy to Tunisia inexplicably ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, presumably due to neglectful refuelling procedures. The same month, 121 people died on a flight of a private air company, from Cyprus to Greece. The exact causes of this air tragedy are still under investigation and will soon be publicised. A series of other accidents on charter as well as regular flights in and outside Europe have since confirmed a pattern where relentless price competition has apparently led to desperate cost-cutting, also affecting air safety standards.

2.       Council of Europe member states must act to ensure, both nationally and internationally, that air safety standards are rigorously upheld in spite of heightened competition in the aviation industry. They should use the Council of Europe’s position as the parliamentary forum of the European Civil Aviation Conference – which groups the aviation authorities in a membership area roughly corresponding to that of the Council of Europe – in order to raise this issue in time for ECAC’s Triennial Session to be held in Strasbourg in 2006, so that remedial policy action can be taken, not least in the rapidly expanding charter aviation industry.

 

Signed 1:

PERICLEOUS PAPADOPOULOS, Antigoni, Cyprus, ALDE
DRAGASSAKIS, Ioannis, Greece, UEL
FENECHIU, Relu, Romania, ALDE
GAS�LIBA, Carles, Spain, ALDE
HOOPER, Gloria, United Kingdom, EDG
KIRILOV, Evgeni, Bulgaria, SOC
KOROBEYNIKOV, Anatoliy, Russian Federation, EDG
MELC�K, Miloš, Czech Republic, SOC
PIROZHNIKOVA, Liudmila, Russian Federation, EDG
RANDEGGER, Johannes, Switzerland, ALDE
SASI, Kimmo, Finland, EPP/CD
SCHREINER, Bernard, France, EPP/CD
VOSGANIAN, Varujan, Romania, ALDE
VRETTOS, Konstantinos, Greece, SOC
WILLE, Paul, Belgium, ALDE

1        SOC: Socialist Group
       EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
       ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
       EDG: European Democratic Group
       UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
       NR: not registered in a group