Written by Maria Niestadt (1st edition),

Munich international airport control tower and terminal modern buildings with departing taking off plane
© servickuz / Adobe Stock

The Single European Sky (SES) initiative aims to make EU airspace less fragmented and to improve air traffic management in terms of safety, capacity, cost-efficiency and the environment. Its current regulatory framework is based on two legislative packages: SES I (adopted in 2004), which set the principal legal framework, and SES II (adopted in 2009), which aimed to tackle substantial air traffic growth, increase safety, and reduce costs and delays and the impact of air traffic on the environment. Nonetheless, European airspace remains fragmented, costly and inefficient.

The European Commission presented a revision of the SES in 2013 (the SES 2+ package). While the Parliament adopted its first-reading position in March 2014, in December 2014 the Council agreed only a partial general approach, owing to disagreement between the UK and Spain over the application of the text to Gibraltar airport. With Brexit having removed this blockage, and also to take into account the changed context, the Commission has amended its initial proposal. The Council and the Parliament are now discussing the revised proposal.

Complete version

Amended proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the implementation of the Single European Sky (recast)
Committee responsible: Transport and Tourism (TRAN) COM(2020) 579
22.9.2020
Rapporteur: Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania) 2013/0186(COD)
Shadow rapporteurs: Bogusław Liberadzki (S&D, Poland)
Jan-Christoph Oetjen (Renew, Germany)
Marco Campomenosi (ID, Italy)
Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France)
Johan van Overtveldt (ECR, Belgium)
João Ferreira (GUE/NGL, Portugal)		 Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’)
Next steps expected: Publication of draft report