Belgian Presidency organises sustainable aviation conference

15 April 2024: The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union recently hosted an Aviation Conference on Europe’s Flight Plan to a Sustainable Future, which ERA particpated in. The meeting was very high level and gathered industry stakeholders and major institutional policymakers.

A number of welcome speeches were made by different institutional stakeholders such as Juan Carlos Salazar, ICAO Secretary General, and Adina Valean, EU Transport Commissioner, which reminded deleates of the importance of financial support to implement new regulations and ensure a competitive environment that is resilient and able to attract new talents.

The first panel focused on ensuring a level playing field with non-European players. The speakers mentioned the importance of ensuring social standards within the European Union without forgetting the importance of competitivity and connectivity. The role of the European Union is essential in ensuring fair competition through developing new fundamentals and being an example and push other regions through ICAO and other international organisations. But there is a risk of seeming too imperialistic and not sensitive enough to other cultural dynamics and priorities.

The second panel was about achieving the most environmentally friendly sky in the world with Air Traffic Management (ATM) measures. As mentioned in many roadmaps, ATM improvements can save up to 10 per cent of CO2 emissions, and ATM will also play a key role in improving non-CO2 effects. Policy measures have so far only focused on fuels and emissions, but not enough on ATM as it is very sensitive to weather and geopolitics. This was seen when negotiating the SES 2+ that has been finalised however ERA views as not ambitious enough.

The third panel discussed how to maintain and promote high social standards for air crew. This topic is usually mentioned very briefly, but this is actually a key enabler of competitivity and attractivity. Aviation is not a traditional sector; with its numerous rules and international conditions it doesn’t have a typical employee/employers structure, but safety is at stake when pilots do not feel comfortable due to bad management and it is very difficult to define who is responsible in case of incidents. We need to define the changes we want and updates different regulations outside this scope to improve social standards.

The last panel was a political debate between MEPs Marinescu and Liberadzki and the public on the future EU legislation for a sustainable aviation. The discussion followed the three pillars of sustainability :

• Environment: panellists mentioned the overregulation that took place during the last mandate, and now it is time for implementation with financial and institutional support.
• Economy: both MEPs emphasised the sufficiency of current legislation and the need to further protect our business by working together on a European common methodology.
• Social: the speakers actually mentioned the importance of the social aspect that is usually too neglected although it is directly linked to the quality of service.

To conclude, the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility emphasised the need for more green legislation and aviation taxes and to better protect passengers. He said that the industry must be more involved in all fronts and then we will be able to move the EU to a greener level playing field.