The last 18 months has been a "whirlwind" of activity with no time to stop following the major restructuring completed in June 2005. ECA's new European Team addressed some of the subjects pilots believe are key to our profession whilst developing as a team into an effective and coherent unit. Only our members, and the pilots they represent, can judge how effective we have been. But this issue of the Cockpit News looks back over just what we have achieved on your behalf. Some of the topics addressed in this edition are:

• Our response to a poor and scientifically groundless proposal for a Flight and Duty Time regulation
• The development of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as it takes responsibility for operational and licensing issues from the JAA
• The plethora of new security requirements which are sometimes applied to flight crew without any real thought as to their need or effectiveness
• The patchwork of National employment law and how it affects our growing membership in airlines which base pilots in more than one EU Country
• The rush by the European Commission to bring back within a sound legal framework the National bi-lateral air service agreements, particularly with the USA
• Support for those cockpit crew who work for no-frills and regional airlines
• Our work to ensure the new Multi Crew Pilot Licence is implemented with full regard to improving training and safety levels in our profession.

As a team, we have also spent a small but valuable amount of time developing our own teamwork and approach. There is certainly more work than we have the ability to complete, so we recognised the need both to maximise the value we obtained from our resources, as well as to prioritise the work effectively. 2006 saw the publication of an updated ECA Low Cost Carrier study which, along with information on all our work can be found on our website, www.eurocockpit.be. The European Team is not responsible for these achievements on our own. Without the strong participation of our own Member Associations pressing their European politicians and governments and supplying experts to represent ECA's views; as well as the support of the IFALPA committees, officers and structures; we could not effect the changes that we have been able to make. As is always the case in representational structures, unity is our strength. Unity ensures the negotiating team obtain the best results from contract negotiations, unity creates a strong political voice when persuading governments and unity provides ECA with an effective presence in the corridors of power, here in Brussels. Finally, since the new Executive Board has been set up in June 2005, ECA's membership has been increased from 22 to 31 pilot associations, making us an even more representative and potent advocate for Cockpit Crew issues in Brussels!