The Arab Civil Aviation Organization, represented by Eng. Mohamed REJEB, Air Navigation and Air Safety Expert, attended the EUR/NAT DGAC-7 virtual meeting on Sustainable Funding of CAAs held on 20 OCT 2020 from 14:00-16:00 CET.
The main objectives of the meeting were:
a. review the outcomes of the ICAO EUR/NAT Workshop on Sustainable Funding of Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs);
b. discuss and exchange information on sustainable funding best practices and plans; and
c. monitoring progress report on the EUR/NAT implementation of CART recommendations and measures based on COVID-19 Contingency Related Differences (CCRD) and COVID19 Response and Recovery Implementation Centre (CRRIC) online platform information.
83 participants from 34 States and 5 International and Regional Organizations took part in the teleconference.
The Meeting was chaired by the ICAO EUR/NAT DGCA Chairman, Mr. Luis Ribeiro (DG CAA of Portugal) who opened the meeting by welcoming all participants and outlining the main objectives of the meeting.
In her opening remarks, the ICAO Secretary General, Dr Fang Liu, welcomed the ICAO EUR/NAT Office´s recent workshop to start addressing the CAA funding shortfall challenges being faced in ensuring their safety, security, and economic oversight functions in the pandemic context, and appreciated that the EUR/NAT DGCA meeting would be endorsing urgently needed next steps. Dr. Liu concluded by calling on national governments to provide the financial support which was so urgently needed to sustain the aviation sector, noting in addition that the ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task force (CART) was in the process of considering the inclusion of a risk management framework for the evaluation of COVID-19 testing solutions, as part of its Phase II Take-off Guidelines.
Ms. Silvia Gehrer, Regional Director of the ICAO Europe and North Atlantic (EUR/NAT) Regional Office, provided the background of activities undertaken by the EUR/NAT Office prior this meeting and outlined the objectives and proceedings of the meeting.