European Parliament: proposal for a UAP reporting system
Member of the European Parliament Francisco Guerreiro proposed this week an addition to the EU Regulation dictating means of reporting aerial incidents to include anomalous phenomena
Proposal
The first part of Guerreiro’s proposal, first reported by journalist Andreas Müller, makes a diagnostic of the situation regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Stating that the subject still suffers from stigma, preventing data collection for the scientific community, and that many encounters remain unreported. Furthermore, the proposal points out that only “professional pilots and their crews” are allowed to make reports in the current legislation.
Finally, it references a new U.S. bill aiming to ease UAP reporting and prevent crews from retaliation if they choose to do so.
The second part of the proposal asks the EU to formulate a “common methodology for reporting and analysing UAP sightings”. Data would then be funneled into a “harmonized EU database”; allowing member states to exchange information.
Furthermore, the proposal “calls on the commission to propose updating the current legislation” to “include a mechanism” for “reporting and data analysis regarding UAPs in EU airspace”.
The proposal notes that this should be expanded to encounters in which there is “no immediate safety risk”.
Current Regulation
The regulation currently in use states the following :
In order to improve aviation safety, relevant civil aviation safety information should be reported, collected, stored, protected, exchanged, disseminated and analysed, and appropriate safety action should be taken on the basis of the information collected.
It is necessary to ensure that front-line aviation professionals report occurrences that pose a significant risk to aviation safety. Voluntary reporting systems should complement the mandatory reporting systems, and both should allow individuals to report details of aviation safety-related occurrences.
Mandatory and voluntary reporting systems should be set up within organizations, the Agency, and competent authorities of the Member States.
Organizations should send the preliminary results of their analyses to the competent authority of their Member States or to the Agency, and should also send them the final results if those results identify an actual or potential aviation safety risk.
Various categories of staff working or otherwise engaged in civil aviation witness events which are of relevance to accident prevention. They should therefore have access to tools enabling them to report such events, and their protection should be guaranteed.
Safety investigation authorities and any entity entrusted with regulating civil aviation safety within the Union should have full access to details of occurrences collected and occurrence reports stored by their Member States.
Organisations should store occurrence reports derived from details of occurrences collected under the mandatory and, where applicable, the voluntary reporting systems in one or more databases.
An occurrence involving an aircraft registered in a Member State or operated by an organisation established in a Member State should be reported even if it happened outside the territory of that Member State.
The objective of the exchange of information on occurrences should be the prevention of aviation accidents and incidents. It should not be used to attribute blame or liability or to establish benchmarks for safety performance.
All safety-related information derived from occurrence reports collected in the Union should be transferred in the European Central Repository in a timely manner.
It should be possible for interested parties to request access to certain information contained in the European Central Repository, subject to the rules concerning the confidentiality of such information and the anonymity of the persons involved.
Appropriate measures should be put in place to ensure that information collected through occurrence reporting schemes is kept confidential and that access to the European Central Repository is restricted.
Penalties should, in particular, be applicable against any person who or entity which, contrary to this Regulation, misuses information protected by this Regulation; acts in a prejudicial manner against the reporter or other persons mentioned in occurrence reports, except in cases where the exemptions laid down in this Regulation apply; does not establish an environment appropriate for allowing the collection of details of occurrences; does not analyse the information collected; does not act to address any safety or potential safety deficiencies detected; or does not share the information collected in application of this Regulation.
The following text is a list of the procedures and conditions to follow. Currently, crews must report a wide array of events, such as
collision-related occurrences;
in-flight occurrences
system malfunctions;
propulsion problems
collisions, near collisions or potential for collisions
Organizations in each Member state have to “establish a mandatory reporting system to facilitate the collection of details of occurrences “ and “Following notification of an occurrence, any organization established in a Member State which is not covered by paragraph 9 shall report to the competent authority of that Member State “ “no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of the occurrence”
Regarding storing information:
Each Member State shall designate one or more competent authorities to establish a mechanism to independently collect, evaluate, process, analyse and store details of occurrences.
The Commission shall manage a European Central Repository to store all occurrence reports collected in the Union.
Member States and the Agency shall participate in an exchange of information by making all information relating to safety stored in their respective reporting databases available to the competent authorities of the other Member States, the Agency and the Commission, through the European Central Repository.
Any entity entrusted with regulating civil aviation safety, or any safety investigation authority, within the Union shall have secure full online access to information on occurrences contained in the European Central Repository.
For security reasons, interested parties shall not be granted direct access to the European Central Repository.
Interested parties forbidden to access the repository directly include:
International aviation organizations
Laboratories, centers, or universities
Pilots
Air traffic controller
As direct research will be impossible for outside researchers without prior knowledge of a case, one could wonder if an investigative body structure like the French GEIPAN couldn’t be used to make cases public “en-masse” and allow scientific research at a large scale.
Motions for Resolution
The political system of the European Parliament regarding motions for resolutions is as follows:
The motion for a resolution shall be submitted to the President, who shall verify whether it fulfils the applicable criteria. If the President declares the motion to be admissible, he or she shall announce it in plenary and refer it to the committee responsible.
The committee responsible shall decide what procedure is to be followed, which may include the combination of the motion for a resolution with other motions for a resolution or with reports; the adoption of an opinion, which may take the form of a letter; or the drawing up of a report under Rule 54. The committee responsible may also decide not to follow up the motion for a resolution.
The authors of a motion for a resolution shall be informed of the decisions of the President, of the committee and of the Conference of Presidents.
Once that motion for a resolution has been thus taken over by the committee responsible, only that committee shall have the power to withdraw it. The committee responsible shall retain that power of withdrawal until the opening of the final vote in plenary.
MEP Francisco Guerreiro’s UAP Conference
We also learned that on March 20th at 4 p.m., Francisco Guerreiro will organize a conference regarding UAPs with :
AFSA Executive Director Ryan Graves
Dr. Beatriz Villaroel
MUFON Italian Chapter Director Edoardo Russo
J. Dekkers, UAP Coalition Netherlands
Complete proposal
Below is the complete proposal by MEP Guerreiro:
B9‑0194/2024
Motion for a European Parliament resolution on updating the EU Regulation on the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation to include UAP reporting
The European Parliament,
having regard to Rule 143 of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) remain a stigmatised subject, which often inhibits methodical data collection and analysis by the scientific community;
B. whereas a significant number of UAP occurrences, including many first-hand sightings by airline pilots and their crews, remain unexplained or unreported;
C. whereas Regulation (EU) 376/2014[1] only allows aviation professionals to report on safety-related matters;
D. whereas bipartisan lawmakers in the United States have proposed new legislation (Bill HR6967, the Safe Airspace for Americans Act) to protect civilian pilots and aviation personnel who report UAP sightings;
1. Considers that the EU should propose guidelines for a common methodology for reporting and analysing UAP sightings, which could result in a harmonised EU database and repository and thus allow a technical exchange of information between Member States;
2. Calls on the Commission to propose updating the current legislation, namely Regulation (EU) 376/2014, to include a mechanism for consistent, transparent and stigma-free reporting and data analysis regarding UAPs in EU airspace, including where such occurrences do not pose any apparent and immediate safety risk to the aircraft concerned.
Translated from French by Kate
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0