Brussels, Belgium – On Wednesday 4th September, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the Transport & Tourism Committee sent a strong message in support of aviation safety and continued innovation. The Parliament’s Committee voted to oppose damaging resource cuts to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which could impact its ability to certify new aviation products.

EASA has responsibility for the certification and validation of new aircraft designs and their related products in Europe. The Agency’s ability to deal with new certification and validation requests in a timely manner is vital. This ensures that newer, safer products from Europe and global aviation manufacturers reach the market without unnecessary delays. The manufacturing industry is charged fees by EASA in order to fully cover the cost of certification and validation activities. As such, the cost of these activities is borne exclusively by the industry; therefore any cuts in this area would seem unjustified and counterproductive.

“There is a serious risk that EASA will face arbitrary cuts to its certification staff as the EU looks to apply cost-cutting measures across the board. Yet, because EASA’s certification and validation activities are funded by industry, cutting these resources will have no impact on the EU budget, and will negatively impact EASA’s ability to respond to requests from manufacturers to make new, safety-enhancing technologies available worldwide,” said Pete Bunce, President and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA).

"GAMA welcomes the strong message of support by Members of the Transport Committee in recognising the important role played by EASA and the need for a pragmatic response to difficult budgetary discussions. We hope the entire Parliament will support the position of their transport colleagues,” Bunce added.

The Parliament’s Committee voted on an Opinion by Mr Roberts Zile MEP, which will assist the Parliament in setting its overall position on the EU’s 2015 budget.