Date
Toulouse, École Nationale de l ’Aviation Civile (ENAC)
Closer collaboration on sustainability, resilience and safety is resulting from a key ICAO event, in Toulouse.
Providing a powerful platform for advocacy in support of air transport’s crucial role as a catalyst for sustainable development, this meeting of European, Central Asian and North African Directors General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) focused on supporting the implementation of ICAO provisions, policies, and programmes in these areas and beyond.
Taking place on 23 April 2024, DGCAs from 38 States, in addition to high-level representatives from 10 international and regional organizations and industry partners gathered under the theme "Joining forces and building bridges" for the yearly DGCA Meeting, which was convened by ICAO’s European and North Atlantic (EUR/NAT) Office in Paris.
On April 24th, a series of meetings took place at the AIRBUS offices, along with a tour of the production facilities. During the meetings, the General Directors were briefed on confidential matters primarily concerning upcoming developments in industrial production and the challenges facing aircrafts.
ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar addressed the 97 participants in the meeting, outlining ICAO's current priorities within its Strategic Objectives, with a focus on aviation decarbonization and on the accelerating pace of innovation.
He also emphasized ICAO’s ongoing transformation into a modern, digital, adaptive, and collaborative organization: ‘Within ICAO, we too must transform to ensure that we are well positioned to continue acting as the leader of the strategic goal of the safe, secure, and sustainable development of air transport’.
Mr. Salazar also underscored the significance of the three major anniversaries the organization is commemorating this year: the 80th anniversary of the Convention on International Civil Aviation and ICAO, the 75th Anniversary of the Air Navigation Commission, and 75th Anniversary of the Convention's Annex 9 - Facilitation.
Mr. Nicolas Rallo, the Director of ICAO’s Paris Office, underscored the key importance of cooperation in his opening remarks: ‘Most of the challenges faced by civil aviation are global in nature, and therefore call for a global and well-coordinated response. Let us therefore continue to join efforts and build bridges within and beyond our aviation ecosystem to achieve the widest possible cooperation, and the highest possible benefits for our States, our aviation industry, and our societies’.
Mr. David Benito Astudillo, the DGCA of Spain was elected as the EUR/NAT DGCA Chairperson. Additionally, Ms. Mirjana Čizmarov and Mr. Tahir Nazarov, DGCAs of Serbia and Uzbekistan respectively, were elected as Vice-Chairpersons.
The meeting provided a platform for engaging discussions around six topics: Aviation Training and the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP); Sustainability; Resilience; Cooperation for Implementation Support in Safety; Gender Equality; and the Ratification of International Air Law Treaties.
The exchanges highlighted the key importance of civil aviation for States’ socio-economic development and underscored the commitment of States and Organizations to work collaboratively across ICAO’s key objectives, avoiding duplication of efforts and exploring synergies wherever possible.
The meeting was hosted by the École Nationale de l ’Aviation Civile (ENAC), the largest aviation academy in Europe and a corporate partner of ICAO’s Training Plus Programme (TPP).
The 2025 EUR/NAT DGCA Meeting is planned to take place in Paris during the week of the Paris Air Show (16-22 June 2025).
Toulouse, Airbus
The ICAO European and North Atlantic delegation was also invited to Airbus, hosted in Toulouse facilities, to discuss challenges and Innovations in our industry.
In the DGCA/162 meeting, held in Paris on the 25th of April, discussions took place on:
1. Analysis of the survey on climate adaptation.
It was agreed that the ECAC Secretariat will continue its information gathering on the subject of climate adaptation, ahead of possibly developing proposals for actions, noting the need to avoid duplicating work carried out by EUROCONTROL, ACI and EASA in their own forums.
2. Update on recent EU developments.
Directors General noted the updates provided by the Belgian Presidency of the European Union and the European Commission and congratulated them on the success of the SES 2+ negotiations.
3. Update on ECAC events.
Having noted the main outcomes of the ECAC-ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office joint workshop on facilitation (Athens, 12 March 2024), Directors General supported the organization of a similar event in 2026 to update and review progress.
They also noted the preparations and programme for the ECAC Triennial Session (ECAC/42, Strasbourg, 9-10 July 2024) and the next Special DGCA meeting hosted by Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (Maastricht, 5-7 September 2024).
4. Any other business.
Directors General agreed that exceptionally the normal rules on one in-person meeting per year could be relaxed in the specific case of the Facilitation Working Group because of its specific circumstances relating to the change in the cycle of meetings and the expected ICAO High Level Conference on Facilitation in early 2025, to allow for a second in-person meeting to take place in the second half of 2024. This would enable the European Coordination Group on Facilitation (ECG-FAL) to meet back-to-back with the Facilitation Working Group.
On behalf of the HCAA, Dr. Christos Tsitouras, the Governor and Ms. Kalliopi Lykou, General Director of Economic Oversight and Administrative Support, participated on the above meetings.
Both EUR/NAT and ECAC congratulated the HCAA for the organization in Athens of both the ECAC-ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office joint workshop on facilitation(Athens, 12 March 2024) and the ICAO Green Airports Seminar (Athens, 18-19 April 2024).
