Brussels Triggers Safeguard Clause against Bulgaria's Aviation

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | December 20, 2006, Wednesday // 00:00

The European Commission decided to invoke a safeguard clause against Bulgaria's aviation over "grave deficiencies" in safety procedures.

The safeguard clause will exclude Bulgarian air carriers from the benefit of being considered a "Community carrier". They may continue to operate as "third country operators" to and from member states in accordance with existing bilateral agreements.

That means there would be no mutual recognition of standards, adding costs and bureaucracy to Bulgarian airline operations. Bulgaria will have to arrange bilateral agreements with individual EU members.

However Bulgarian air carriers will have to comply with EU safety rules and might be grounded by member states if found seriously defective during a ramp inspection.

The European Commission stressed it is not targeting a particular company.

"We are urgently assessing the situation of each BG carrier and we will draw our conclusions which will be forwarded to the EU Air Safety Committee in February," the EU executive body said in a press release.

Deficiencies in the capacity of the BG CAA concern inability to exercise correctly the oversight of aircraft personnel and maintenance organisations.

The European Commission pointed out that these difficulties have been identified last year already, but the latest visit of the European Aviation Safety Agency proved that the situation remains unsatisfactory.

EASA latest report singled out several areas of serious concern - the capacity of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation Administration, the preparedness of the Bulgarian air carriers and the security of Russian-made planes.

By backing EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot, the European Commission is calling for some of the toughest safety measures ever applied against a new member state, the Financial Times commented.

Barrot will say the Bulgarian authorities lack the technical capacity or human resources to carry out full safety checks on aircraft parts registered in Bulgaria, on flight personnel or on maintenance organisations, the Financial Times said.

However, he will not advise European citizens against flying to Bulgaria and there will be no restrictions on Bulgarian carriers operating to and from other EU states.

Barrot was said to be disturbed that Sofia appeared to have done little to address EU concerns about aviation highlighted in a report last year.

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