The Directors-General of Civil Aviation of the European Union and members of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) held a meeting in Sorrento, Italy, within the framework of the ICAO General Assembly. The ECAC brings together 44 Member States (27 EU members and 17 non-EU), and since July 2021 the President is Alessio Quaranta, Director General ENAC (Italian Civil Aviation Authority).

ENAC President Pierluigi Di Palma underlined the development of Italian civil aviation and the commitment to the new challenges: ‘We just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of ENAC in 1997. Since then we have achieved excellent results, with global recognition in all areas, promoting the development of the sector, liberalisation, critical issues for the environment, always with the utmost respect for safety, the protection of passengers and the protection of the public interest. Let us now look at innovation and space, such as advanced air mobility and the development of sub-orbital flights, a project in which we are actively involved and this concerns the construction of the Grottaglie Space Port in Puglia. These objectives can only be achieved through international coordination and a common vision for the development of a European civil aviation’.

‘The gathering of everyone around a table’ — as stated by Director General ENAC and ECAC President Alessio Quaranta — ‘is becoming even more important at a time such as the current one, when the economic crisis, the consequence of the pandemic and geopolitical problems have brought about the whole sector. The involvement of the Director-General of Ukraine also makes us understand even more how civil aviation should always be projected beyond any situation, however painful and unfair, and continue to play the role of developing relations and connecting peoples’.

The Directors General of the Civil Aviation Authorities discussed in Sorrento a number of aviation related issues in order to design a common strategy for the coming years and to define the European strategic priorities to be proposed at the 41st ICAO General Assembly, to be held in Montreal from 27 September to 7 October 2022.

The Governors, among other things, reaffirmed their commitment to work together to promote ambitious international targets and measures to reduce CO2 emissions_from civil aviation and to help achieve these objectives through capacity building activities and facilitating access to climate finance. They also reaffirmed their support for the Declaration of the International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition (https://ukcop26.org/cop-26-declaration-international-aviation-climate-a…)as part of the pursuit of these goals.

Their commitment was formalised by a joint statement on 26 August 2022, at the 71st ECAC meeting in Sorrento, Italy.

In addition to the civil aviation leaders and officials, the following also participated in the meeting:

Henrik Hololei (Director-General of the European Commission’s department for Mobility and Transport, DG MOVE), Filip Cornelis (Director for Aviation, DG MOVE), Eamonn Brennan,Director General of Eurocontrol and Raul Medina Caballero, new DG Eurocontrol, who will take office in the coming weeks, Nicolas Rallo, Director of ICAO Regional Office in Paris, Paula Almeida, Director of Joint Aviation Authorities Training Organisation, Patricia Reverdy, Secretary-General ECAC and other executives.

Intervention from Canada was also carried out by ICAO Director-General Juan Carlos Salazar.

HCAA was represented by the Governor / DG, Dr. Christos Tsitouras, General Director of Aviation Activities, Konstantinos Karageorgis, and General Director of Economic Oversight and Administrative Support, Kalliopi Lykou.