SERBIA 2010 PROGRESS REPORT (Air Transport)
- briefly describes the relations between Serbia and the Union;
- analyses the situation in Serbia in terms of the political criteria for membership;
- analyses the situation in Serbia on the basis of the economic criteria for membership;
- reviews Serbia’s capacity to implement European standards, that is, to gradually approximate its legislation and policies with those of the acquis, in line with the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and the European Partnership priorities.
Good progress has taken place in air transport. The provisions of the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) Agreement in relation to market access have been applied and the market has been opened to new carriers. The law on civil aviation aimed at implementing the first transitional phase of the ECAA has been adopted, addressing a number of previously outstanding issues in the field of aviation safety, ground handling, and aviation security. On air traffic management, Serbia organised with Montenegro their respective airspace into a functional airspace block. However, Serbia still needs to make further efforts to complete regulatory alignment with the single European sky within the Implementation of Single European Sky in South-East Europe (ISIS) Programme. Legislation of the single European sky, in particular the regulations on provision of air navigation services, organisation and use of airspace, interoperability of the European Air Traffic Management network and the flexible use of airspace regulation need to be adopted. Separation of responsibilities for inspection and audits as well as establishment of an independent air accident investigation have not yet been done. The security control system remains to be overseen by an independent body. The administrative capacity of the ministry has not been reinforced. Overall, Serbia is moderately advanced in the area of transport. It has continued to comply with the obligations of the Interim Agreement and SAA. Market access provisions of the ECAA Agreement are now applied. Framework legislation has been adopted for inland waterways and air transport. However, framework legislation remains to be adopted for railways. Reform of the railway sector needs to be stepped up. Administrative capacity needs to be strengthened for the implementation of the adopted legislation.