What does the Agency do?
Answer
The European Aviation Safety Agency is the centrepiece of the European Union's strategy for aviation safety. Its mission is to promote the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation. The Agency develops common safety and environmental rules at the European level. It monitors the implementation of standards through inspections in the Member States and provides the necessary technical expertise, training and research. The Agency works hand in hand with the national authorities which continue to carry out many operational tasks, such as certification of individual aircraft or licensing of pilots.
The main tasks of the Agency currently include:
- Rulemaking: drafting aviation safety legislation and providing technical advice to the European Commission and to the Member States;
- Inspections, training and standardisation programmes to ensure uniform implementation of European aviation safety legislation in all Member States;
- Safety and environmental type-certification of aircraft, engines and parts;
- Approval of aircraft design organisations world-wide as and of production and maintenance organisations outside the EU;
- Authorization of third-country (non EU) operators;
- Coordination of the European Community programme SAFA (Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft) regarding the safety of foreign aircraft using Community airports;
- Data collection, analysis and research to improve aviation safety.
More details on these tasks can be found in the EASA homepage.