The Single European Sky is a legislative process to improve the overal ATM service in Europe.
The current applicable legislation can be found in the synthetic view of EU regulatory on the Eurocontrol IANS website.
Single European Sky 1
The Single European Sky (SES) is a European initiative to improve the way Europe’s airspace is managed. Its purpose is to modernise Europe’s airspace structure and air traffic management technologies so as to ensure forecast growth in air traffic can be met, safely and sustainably, whilst reducing costs and improving environmental performance, ensuring Europe’s aviation industry remains globally competitive.
In 2004, the European Commission, kick of the Single European Sky (I) legislation with a package of four SES Regulations ((EC) Nos 549-552/2004 which form the foundation.
Single European Sky 2
The second regulatory package on the Single European Sky (SES II) was approved in 2009 and it changed the SES focus from capacity to performance in general. Its ultimate objective is to increase the economic, financial and environmental performance of the provisions of the Air Navigation Services in Europe.
In particular, the amendments to the SES I regulatory package introduced a comprehensive EU-wide Performance Scheme; a refocus of the Functional Airspace Blocks to be not just about airspace but service provision in general, and a Network Manager to co-ordinate certain actions at network level.
Furthermore, it extended the competences of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), created in 2004, to air traffic management and thus shifted rulemaking support for technical implementing rules, as well as oversight of Member States, from Eurocontrol to EASA.
SES 2+
The 2009 SES II-package has shown great promise, especially as regards the application of a more hands-off performance oriented model of economic regulation. With the implementation of that approach, important lessons have been learned that needed to be included in the regulations to refine the approach. Additionally, the SES II initiative left some overlaps in legislation, so that same provisions were found in several pieces of legislation. To perform these updates, the European Commission proposed an interim update of the SES rules, called Single European Sky 2+ .
One of the proposals of SES 2+ was unbundling of CNS/ATM services of the ANSP
Support servicesTraditionally, all ATM services have been bundled into one monopoly provider and designated without use of public procurement rules. SES2+ proposed the application of normal procurement rules to ensure a transparent selection of the provider offering the best cost/benefit ratio.
The SES2+ proposal was put forward in June 2013, but was never completely agreed upon.
COVID 19
EC consultation ‘Aviation launched a draft proposal – COVID-19 response (Single European Sky, performance & charging, 3rd reference period)’, including a draft implementing regulation on exceptional measures for the third reference period (2020-2024) of the single European sky performance and charging scheme due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SES 2+ recast 2020
On 22/09/2020, the European Commission was proposing an upgrade of the Single European Sky regulatory framework which comes on the heels of the European Green Deal, after the previous SES 2 + recast of 2009 stalled due to various reasons.
This proposal comes as the sharp drop in air traffic caused by the coronavirus pandemic calls for greater resilience of our air traffic management, by making it easier to adapt traffic capacities to demand.
On 1 December 2024, the new Single European Sky (SES2+) Regulation entered into force, in a step forward towards a more efficient, and more sustainable European airspace.
SES2+ creates rules and incentives for monopoly air navigation service providers to pursue more efficiency gains and adopt modern technologies, with the aim to alleviate congestion in Europe’s airspace and to provide better quality services, but also foster innovation and the development of new services in the sector. These aspects will help mitigate situations such as this summer, when air travel was severely disrupted, with nearly every other flight experiencing delays due mostly to overwhelming congestion in Europe’s airspace.
The new regulation is also designed to reduce the environmental impact of flying. Specific targets for climate and environmental performance will be set for air navigation service providers, and airlines will be encouraged to adopt more sustainable practices through a fair charging system. EUROCONTROL, appointed by the European Commission as the network manager, is expected to work with the stakeholders on the coordinated deployment of network infrastructure in Europe. The realisation of the new regulation’s full potential will depend on implementing measures that the Commission will now develop, to be adopted subject to Member States’ agreement.