Latvia joined the Diplomatic Clearances Technical Arrangement as 14th member on 1st January 2015. Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden already signed the arrangement to simplify and harmonise military air transport in Europe.
The aim of EDA’s Diplomatic Clearances Technical Arrangement is to harmonise procedures for overflights and landings of EU nations military registered or operated transport aircraft. The arrangement enables signatory member states to operate without the need to submit diplomatic requests for each flight since an annual diplomatic clearance number is issued.
This common mechanism increases efficiency and effectiveness of European airlift as there is more flexibility during mission preparation and mission execution. Furthermore it saves human and financial resources of the member states with a significantly reduced number of required requests and notifications. A dedicated online portal provides basic transparency on national policies and procedures for granting diplomatic clearances for military transport aircraft according to the technical arrangement.
Background
The disparate requirements to obtain diplomatic clearances to land in or to fly over EU member states cause unnecessary delays and hamper swift airlift operations. The legacy diplomatic clearances mechanism needs to be tailored to the 21st century’s requirements, especially looking at the future implementation of the Single European Sky (SES) where a route driven system will evolve into a trajectory driven system.
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