From January 13 – 31, 2014 in Montreal the committee phase of the 201st session of the ICAO Council took place. The session has been attended by Dr. Małgorzata Polkowska, the Representative of the Republic of Poland on the ICAO Council. The first week of the session was abundant with meetings, inclusive of a two coordination meetings of the EU.
During this first meeting issues related to airport package, passengers rights, ETS and preparations to the EU-ASEAN Aviation Summit were touched on. The Summit is to be held on February 11 – 12 in Singapore. The goal of the first EU-ASEAN Aviation Summit is strengthening the strategic dialogue between EU and ASEAN and discussing benefits of promoting and building closer relations in the area of aviation between states. It is organized by the European Commission, DG MOVE and ASEAN.
To date also a report of the last meeting of Directors General of Civil Aviation which took place in Paris on December 12, 2013 and a report of an ECAC meeting preparing a meeting of CAEP was discussed. The CAEP meeting shall take place on January 23 – 24, 2014 in Motreal.
During the second coordination meeting, which took place on January 20, 2014 , Mrs. Margaret Polkowska - the Representative of the Republic of Poland on the ICAO Council, referred to the two documents prepared for the meeting of Air Transport Committee, which will be held on January, 23rd, 2014. Mrs. Polkowska noted that there is no actions envisaged for developing tools to provide an exchange forum for States to promote more compatible regulatory approaches in international air transport. Mrs. Polkowska also noted that the planned date for final proposals for an international agreement on the liberalization of air carrier ownership and control in 2016 is too distant from the point of view of the priorities discussed during the 38’th Assembly. It is also one of the leading objectives of the European Union and other ECAC member states. Mrs. Polkowska also referred to plans to create, within the ICAO, voluntary fund to support activities related to air transport. Mrs. Polkowska pointed that TRAF should be constructed and managed in the way that the countries, that do not contribute to the fund are at the equal status in ICAO as countries that provide fund. The projects realised under fund financing (especially under “specified contributions”) must not engage ICAO resources in the way that they will harm or delay projects being realised on regular basis.
Meetings of Representatives of the Council with Members of the Air Navigation Commission (ANC) took place during the Committee Phase of the 201st Session of the ICAO Council. During the meetings various issues have been considered, including documents related to Safety as well as Security and Facilitation. Also, the strategic objectives of the ICAO in this matter and proposals of amendments of Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) have been presented. The challenges of Air Navigation Commission, including the implementation of two global implementation ICAO plans - GANP and GASP were also discussed.
On January 22, a meeting of the Finance Committee of ICAO, in which the Polish delegation participated took place. During the meeting, a number of documents, including Review of the Evaluation and Audit Advisory Committee, the report of the results of the ICAO guidelines, ICAO Performance Management Project, as well as Proposals for the ICAO Council Review of Salaries were presented. The participants were also acquainted with the Work Programme of the Finance Committee during the 202nd Session of the ICAO Council.
On January 23, a meeting of the ICAO Air Transport Committee took place. During the meeting the resolutions and decisions of the Assembly concerning economic development of air transport and the protection and facilitation were discussed . The work program of the Committee for the 202 Session of the Council of ICAO was also presented. The Polish delegation also made a comment concerning C- WP/14064 concerning annex 9 section H chapter 8 that recommended replacing the term “passengers requiring special assistance” with the term "Persons with disabilities" . Poland underlined that this change is probably caused by adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities agreed by the United Nations. We noted that such proposed replacement will limit the number of passengers that require assistance and do not have permanent or other disabilities. Due to the interventions of some states, including Poland, the Facilitation Panel (FALP/8) was rescheduled to this year in November (24 to 28) and not in May 2015 as firstly planned.
On January 24, 2014 a joint meeting of the Technical Co-operation Committee and the Finance Committee took place. As a result of the meeting the Working Group (WG) of TCC was formed as a way forward to further exploit the options and mechanism to maximize the outcome and performance of TCB projects to strengthen the strategic objective of ICAO. As the composition of the WG was proposed Ms. Małgorzata Polkowska - Polish Permanent Representative to the ICAO Council. During the meeting a report on the Development Programme for Technical Cooperation has been presented. During other meeting that day the overview of the activity of the Joint Support Committee and the Joint Financing Agreement between Denmark and Iceland were discussed. The ICAO Traveler Identification Programme (TRIP), and short, medium and long term work plans associated with the program have been presented.
During other meetings the strategic objectives of ICAO for the years 2014-2016 were discussed. For example enhance global civil aviation safety, increase capacity and improve efficiency of the global civil aviation system, enhance global civil aviation security and facilitation, foster the development of a sound and economically‐viable civil aviation system, minimize the adverse environmental effects of civil aviation activities.
On 28 January the second meeting of Relations with Host Country Committee (RHCC) was held. During the meeting the matters of health care, education, work permits and facilitation were discussed.
On 29 January was held a coordination meeting of the European Union and the meeting of the Committee on Unlawful Interference. During the meeting, the participants discussed matters in connection with the plans of changes in legislation and the Review of Assembly resolutions and decisions on Security and Facilitation and the Progress report on the implementation of the Universal Security Audit Programme – Continuous Monitoring Approach (USAP-CMA) transition plan were presented. Moreover, the Report of the Implementation Support and Development – Security (ISD-SEC) Programme was presented to the participants of the meeting.
On January 30 the Human Resources Committee meeting was held, which included the presentation of the Review of Assembly Resolutions and Decisions on Policy and Administrative Subjects and the presentation of the Annual Report and Resource Planning for the period 2014-2016 by Ethics Officer. On the same day the meeting of the Working Group on Governance and Efficiency (WGGE) took place, during which the Secretary General of ICAO presented a Review of the Evaluation and Audit Advisory Committee (EAAC) and there were conducted the Preliminary consideration of the Review of the Composition of the Standing Committees of the Council.
On the last day of the committee phase of the 201st Session of the ICAO Council – ie. January 31, the EU Coordination meeting was held and the briefing on the activities of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) and Environment Advisory Group (EAG), during which the Road Map on market-based measurements (MBM) was presented.