Harmonisation of the national Rules for Operational Air Traffic under Instrument Flight Rules

EUROCONTROL member States requested through the Civil-Military Interface Standing Committee (CMIC), to harmonise the national Rules for Operational Air Traffic (OAT) under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) inside controlled Airspace at the European scale. The EUROAT is designed to provide this harmonised and standardised regulatory framework in line with the intent of the SES Framework Regulation and its statement of Member States regarding the enhancement of civil-military cooperation and the facilitation of cooperation between their armed forces in all ATM matters.

With the EUROAT, one of the first IP 1 deliverables of the ATM Master Plan has been produced and provided to the member States for implementation. However, since OAT is a matter of national sovereignty, the intended achievement to conduct OAT-IFR in Europe under a single set of rules will depend on the magnitude of national implementation. The aim is to achieve a widespread national implementation across Europe and a resulting entry into force of the EUROAT around 1 October 2011.

The EUROAT is intended to become a single source document for aircrews flying under OAT within the airspace of Europe and to provide Air Traffic Control Officers with enhanced predictability on military aircrew actions under normal and emergency conditions, said Jean Robert Cazarré, Director Civil-Military ATM Coordination and SES Implementation. Therefore, due to the achieved regulatory harmonisation, the level of safety will increase within the airspace of all Member States that have implemented the EUROAT, he concluded.