Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken by the European Union within the Bilateral Oversight Board under the Agreement between the United States of America and the European Community on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety, concerning the Decision No 0004 amending Annex 1 to the Agreement

In 2007, the U.S. aviation industry raised concerns that the EU rules on the fees and charges levied by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) do not differentiate between European certification projects and EASA validation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approvals of U.S. products.

Following several exchanges on this issue, the European Commission (EC) eventually agreed that EASA fees for validation would be discussed pursuant to the Agreement between the United States of America and the European Community on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety (the “Agreement”).

The Bilateral Oversight Board (BOB) agreed at its June 2011 meeting to address the fees charged by EASA to U.S. applicants for validation of FAA approvals under the terms of Annex 1 of the Agreement. Consequently the Terms of Reference establishing the formation of a Validation Fees Team (VFT) was approved at the BOB meeting on December 11, 2011.

The VFT, composed of representation from the FAA, the EC and EASA, was tasked by the BOB to review the current EASA process and methods for setting fees and charges as applied to validation of U.S. products and to develop recommendations regarding amendments to the Agreement which will address the issues associated with EASA fees for validation of U.S. products.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)252: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:252:FIN

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