Back in September 1990, 10 European member states came together to sign a document known as the ‘Cyprus Agreement’, which established the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) and associated common airworthiness standards and practices for civil aviation.
The excellent results achieved by the JAA ultimately led to the formation, under the auspices of the European Commission, of the European Aviation Safety Agency, responsible for promoting the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation in Europe and worldwide.
Jan Plevka (left) MAWA Forum Chairman, Major Iacovos Mikellides (centre) Cyprus PermRep and Giampaolo Lillo (right) EDA Armaments DirectorWithin the military sector, each member state operates a military aviation safety system independently from each other and individually each is responsible for the regulation of its own aircraft. As a result, all military airworthiness activities are conducted and regulated on a national basis and any harmonisation is only achieved at individual project level and often repeated for each new project. It has become evident that in multinational programmes this generates many shortcomings and is a primary cause for delay and additional cost. In this area there is a unique opportunity to agree on an EU wide harmonisation and unification strategy on military airworthiness.
EDA provides the focus for the development of European harmonised airworthiness requirements through the Military Airworthiness Authorities (MAWA) Forum. The Basic Framework Document formalises the activities of the MAWA Forum, and it is based very closely on the original civilian ‘Cyprus Agreement’.
It was therefore with great pleasure that Giampaolo Lillo (right in picture) EDA Armaments Director and Jan Plevka (left) MAWA Forum Chairman were able to witness the signing of the MAWA Basic Framework Document by Major Iacovos Mikellides (centre) on behalf of Cyprus.
Jan Plevka commented “This is a very important milestone for the MAWA Forum because it brings the number of pMS that have signed the document to 20. EDA, with the excellent support of airworthiness experts within the pMS, will continue to build on the excellent work that has been achieved to date. The goal of an agreed and harmonised set of military airworthiness requirements is an essential building block for all current and future aviation-related military projects being managed within the EDA.”