Single European Sky II

The second regulatory package on the Single European Sky (SES II) is performance-oriented. Its ultimate objective is to increase the economic, financial and environmental performance of the provisions of the Air Navigation Services in Europe. Amendments to the SES I regulatory package have introduced a comprehensive performance-based regulatory pillar comprised of the EU-wide Performance Scheme ; the establishment of the Functional Airspace Blocks, the Network Manager and the Charging Regulation.

The Performance Scheme (Commission Regulation (EU) N° 691/2010) and the adoption by the European Commission of the EU-wide performance targets for the reference period 2012-2014 (Commission Decision of 22-02-2011) in areas of cost-efficiency, capacity and environment², requires that the National Supervisory Authorities elaborate national (or FAB-level) performance plans which contribute to the EU-wide performance targets.
The Functional Airspace Blocks are bottom-up initiatives led by the States to be established by the end of 2012 ; they aim at an enhanced cooperation between the air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and the national supervisory authorities (NSAs) to de-fragment the airspace and obtain the operational efficiency gains through such strategies as common procurement, training and optimisation of air traffic controllers (ATCs) resources.
The Network Manager is a centralised function at EU level to carry out the management of the ATM network functions(airspace design, flow management) and management of scarce resources(transponder code allocations,radio frequencies) as defined in Commission Regulation (EU) N° 677/2011 of 07-07-2011. This function has been entrusted to Eurocontrol up to 2019.
The Charging Regulation (Commission Regulation N° 1191/2010) on the en-route charging system lays down a legal framework of transparent reporting of en-route charges and costs' components of the Member States. It also defines a legal basis for financing, through the charging system, of the "Common Projects" in the context of the deployment of SESAR.

In conjunction with the approval of the SES regulatory framework, the competences of EASA have been extended to ATM and aerodromes³. EASA is now in charge to develop ATM rules dealing with safety and has started to carry out safety inspections in the field of ATM in 2012.

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² Safety has not been included in the first reference period but will be subject to reporting in the second reference period beyond 2014.

³ Regulation (EC) N° 1808/2009 of 21-10-2009, OJ L309, p. 51

Press Release from 17 December 2010: New Regulation on Single European Sky charging to make flying cheaper and more performing pdf - 25 KB [25 KB]