The Directorate is the coordinator for cooperation with the European Commission in the field of aviation. Close cooperation is maintained both bilaterally and multilaterally, based on the Agreement between Serbia and Montenegro and the European Community on certain aspects of air services (the so-called Horizontal Agreement), and the Multilateral Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, the Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic of Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Iceland, the Republic of Montenegro, the Kingdom of Norway, Romania, the Republic of Serbia, and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999), on the establishment of the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA Agreement).
The ECAA Agreement was signed on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Serbia on 29 June 2006 and ratified by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on 13 May 2009. It entered into force internationally on 1 December 2017.
The ECAA Agreement is the first international agreement signed by the Republic of Serbia as an independent state following the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Through this agreement, the Republic of Serbia committed to harmonizing its national regulations with European Community regulations in the fields of aviation safety, aviation security, air traffic management, airport operations, consumer protection, liberalization of the aviation market, state aid control, and environment protection.
The Directorate maintains comprehensive cooperation with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), the body responsible for overseeing the implementation of the relevant agreements. In its role as national coordinator for the ECAA Agreement, the Directorate engages with all competent national authorities and manages EU-funded technical assistance to support the Agreement’s effective enforcement.
European Integration
A key focus of the Directorate’s activities is supporting the Republic of Serbia’s strategic objective of accession to the European Union. In setting regulatory priorities, due consideration is given to the Action Plan for implementing the European Commission’s recommendations from its annual progress reports on Serbia’s EU integration.
Special emphasis is placed on cooperation with national institutions responsible for European integration, to ensure compliance with obligations under the ECAA Agreement and the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, particularly in the field of civil aviation.