Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken by the European Union within the EU-ICAO Joint Committee, concerning the Decision on the adoption of an Annex on aviation security to the Memorandum of Cooperation between the European Union and the International Civil Aviation Organization providing a framework for enhanced cooperation

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a UN specialised agency acting as the global forum for civil aviation. ICAO works to achieve its vision of safe, secure and sustainable development of civil aviation through cooperation among its Member States. The legal basis for ICAO is the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944. Currently ICAO covers 191 countries.

The European Union works closely with ICAO. Firstly, most aspects of the Chicago Convention are Union competence; ICAO is pursuing policies in the fields of safety, security, environment and air traffic management. Secondly, ICAO standards and requirements form the basis for EU legislation. Moreover, international standards, such as in the field of aviation security, are taken over in EU law. For the EU, it is therefore important to engage in ICAO's work and policy-making activities to contribute to sound global aviation policies.

The EU and ICAO have concluded a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) providing for an enhanced framework for cooperation. The MoC identifies security as one of the areas in which cooperation shall be established between the Parties and which shall be developed in a specific annex on Aviation Security to the MoC. The annex should contribute to enhancing security in international aviation and sets out areas of cooperation that will, inter alia, take the form of exchanging relevant security information, posting experts and financing specific security actions.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)457: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:457:FIN

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