On May 5, 2021, COCESNA/ACSA participated in the Fourth Meeting of the EU LAC APP Project Management Board, which was attended by representatives of Latin American and Caribbean countries, regional organizations that are part of the project, as well as observers from the ICAO and LACAC regional offices attended the virtual meeting (webex) together with the EASA EU LAC APP project team.
Ms. Lucrecia Cibrian, from the Americas Regional Team-Foreign Policy Instrument (FPI), opened the meeting, welcoming the large participation of project stakeholders and acknowledging that 2020 has been a difficult year, especially for the Latin American Region and the aviation sector. Ms. Cibrian went on to say that despite the difficulties, the commitment of project partners has remained high and partners are actively involved in project activities, demonstrating continued commitment.
Mr. Luc Tytgat, EASA Director of Safety Management and Strategy, emphasized the importance of union in aviation. This union project has so far covered various domains in aviation. The current challenge for all is to work so that the passengers return to heaven. EASA would love to return to the LAC region with on-site events and will work to encourage EU citizens to resume travel to the LAC region when the pandemic is over. Tytgat went on to say that in the future, when operations resume, we will all have to expand the agenda items in aviation. Safety will need to go hand in hand with the environment, which is an emerging issue and goes beyond CORSIA.
Therefore, the future plans of the EU and EASA in the LAC region will reflect these new trends. Under this Cooperation Project, meetings have been held with different work groups made up of staff from COCESNA Member States and EASA experts where different topics of interest to the Region are addressed. Workshops are developed, documents are shared and new roadmaps are established for what is the regulatory development and application tools in compliance with the latest requirements of the ICAO annexes.
These meetings have generated a great benefit for the Region, in which the areas of Operational Safety, ANS, UAS and Environment have benefited.