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Single European Sky (RP2024)

(A.) Policy and legislation

(A.1)   Policy objectives

The EU’s Single European Sky (SES) initiative has at its heart the reform of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) in Europe in order to cope both with sustained air traffic growth over the last decade and with significant unforeseen traffic variations and new traffic growth after the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires changes to support flight-efficient and environmentally friendly operations in a cost-effective manner while improving the current safety level. It implies de-fragmenting the European airspace, reducing delays, increasing safety standards and flight efficiency to reduce the aviation environmental footprint, and regulating costs related to monopolistic service provision. A new legislative package on the overall SES framework (SES2+) is in its final stage between Council and Parliament.

With the adoption of the new EASA Basic Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2018/1139), Regulation (EC) 552/2004 was repealed and the essential requirements for interoperability of ATM systems and constituents have been transferred to it. A new framework for conformity assessment of ground equipment used for ATM to assess compliance with applicable requirements for safety and interoperability has been adopted in 2023. The new framework addresses several aspects, including the conditions and procedures for certification and declaration of ATM/ANS equipment, or the establishment of the detailed specifications that systems must meet. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) can make extensive use of standards as the central element of the detailed specifications it adopts as the technical requirements against which certification or declarations are performed.

The SESAR programme, as the technological pillar to modernise the SES is instrumental in pursuing the Digital European Sky as a vision which has the potential to drive research and innovation. The deployment of the SESAR solutions by ANSPs, airports and airlines require in many cases the use of standards, recognised within the EASA certification and declaration frameworks to ensure safety and interoperability of the systems deployed. In this context, standards remain a fundamental part of the SESAR life cycle to ensure the seamless and timely transition from the R&D phase to deployment.

(A.2) EC perspective and progress report

Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2021/116 on the establishment of a first common project to support the implementation of the ATM Master Plan ("CP1 Regulation") has mandated the deployment of a group of ATM functionalities that required standardisation. The CP1 regulation has replaced the previous Pilot Common Project, but the functionalities were not significantly changed. These functionalities are as follows:

  1. Extended Arrival Management and integrated arrival management (‘AMAN’)/ departure management (‘DMAN’) in the High Density Terminal Manoeuvring Areas;
  2. Airport Integration and Throughput;
  3. Flexible Airspace Management and Free Route Airspace;
  4. Network Collaborative Management;
  5. System Wide Information Management;
  6. Initial Trajectory Information Sharing or i4D.

The campaign to update the European ATM Master Plan was launched in October 2023. The updated Master Plan will have sustainability at its core, given the urgent need to decarbonise the aviation sector to make Europe’s economy carbon-neutral by 2050. It will set out the vision to modernise Europe’s air traffic management system to make the SES the most efficient and environmentally-friendly sky to fly in the world.

The standardisation related activities in support of SES are coordinated by the European ATM Standards Coordination Group. It works to develop, monitor and maintain an overarching European ATM standardisation rolling development plan (RDP), based on the standardisation needs stemming from the SESAR framework, and inputs from its members. The group facilitates the sharing of work among the European Standardisation Organisations (CEN & CENELEC, ETSI) and other sectoral standards developing organisations such as EUROCAE or Eurocontrol, thus avoiding overlapping developments and identifying gaps. The ATM RDP identifies the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) from ICAO that need to be applied in Europe to ensure worldwide interoperability, and the alignment between SESAR and ICAO. Two additional groups have also been set up to develop, coordinate and maintain similar Standardisation Rolling Development Plans in the areas of unmanned aviation and aviation cybersecurity.

(A.3) References

(B.) Requested actions

(C.) Activities and additional information 

(C.1) Related standardisation activities
EUROCAE

The Commission  decided to award periodic financial support in a form of grants to EUROCAE in support of the development of standards and technical specifications for ATM systems and constituents, including SESAR technologies and standards using EGNOS and Galileo in aviation. These grants are in support of the development of the required standards or revision of existing ones in support of the Single European Sky with a view to accelerating the transition from development to deployment of SESAR solutions, and supporting end-to-end product/system standardisation.

Coordination activities EASCG / EUSCG / ECSCG

European ATM Standards Coordination Group (EASCG) coordination of ATM standardisation activities in support of SES and SESAR deployment maintains a Rolling Development Plan (A-SDP) that can be found in the link: https://www.eascg.eu/rdp/

European Unmanned Standard Coordination Group (EUSCG) coordination of drone standardisation activities and their integration with UTM and ATM maintains a Rolling Development Plan (U-SDP) that can be found in the link: https://www.euscg.eu/rdp/

European Cybersecurity Standard Coordination Group (ECSCG) coordination of cybersecurity standardisation activities maintains a Rolling Development Plan (C-SDP) that can be found in the link: https://eurocae.net/about-us/ecscg/ (note that this Group is confined to ATM cybersecurity issues)

The three above mentioned SDPs are regularly updated to reflect the current situation of standardisation developments.

CEN-CENELEC-ETSI

The Commission has mandated European Standardisation Organisations to develop some standards, consistent with the ATM Master Plan in support of the SES.

EASA

EASA can issue certification and detailed specifications as applicable requirements for design and manufacturing of ATM/ANS systems and constituents. When developing these specifications EASA can use standards developed by recognised standardisation organisation. Close coordination among all organisations developing relevant standards and EASA is key, and the EASGC is an appropriate forum for this activity.

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