In a rapidly changing industry, how can ECA help to ensure the views of Europe's professional pilots are taken into account both now and in the future?

Changes to the aviation market brought about by the liberalisation packages of the 1990s have given us new and successful Europe-wide airlines such as EasyJet and the TUI group. The work to complete the changes to Air Service Agreements with countries outside the EU, such as the recently negotiated so called "Open Skies" Agreement with the USA, will enable the trickle of mergers (e.g. Air France/KLM) to grow to a flood. We are almost at a true "European single market" in civil aviation.

For many years, ECA has worked and argued for a single regulator at EU level. To ensure the single market also operates to a single, high set of safety standards. Unfortunately, the legislators have been far more successful in creating the market than a powerful safety regulator.

But with ECA's support, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is now being expanded to regulate operations and licensing; and in the future, airports and air traffic management. ECA will continue to insist that EASA is strong and independent; and that there is no threat of 27 National Authorities all still able to provide variations and interpretations, which will both distort the market and risk a constant lowering of safety standards.

The other risk, also arising out of an admirable desire to free our industry from artificial market restraints, is to the employees choice to be represented centrally. All that has been learnt over two centuries, confirms that one system produces the most commercially productive and conflict free industrial relations. This is a system with well regulated and legally based unions, negotiating with employers who under the law, cannot exclude them.

ECA has recently won funding from the European Commission to run a Seminar in May (9-11) to examine the problem of effectively representing all the pilots of a truly pan-European airline. I have heard suggestions that no significant employee protection has ever been won without the employee group being willing to step outside the law. ECA believes that the European social model may provide us with a route to argue and win an ability for pilots to organise and negotiate with such a pan-European airline, and to do so without the need to resort to the "strong arm tactics" of the past.

Whilst there are many problems and topics which demand our attention from day to day, I hope you can see that your ECA team looks to address both long and short term priority areas. So, how does ECA aim to ensure that the views of Europe's professional pilots are taken into account, now and in the future?

We are working hard towards a strong and independent, one stop shop for aviation safety regulation firmly centred around EASA and the European Commission. We are working towards an ability for the professional Pilot Associations of Europe to effectively represent all commercial pilots across Europe. We will work as effectively as we can; but I believe we will only succeed with the support of the 36,000+ pilots we represent.