2016 discharge: SESAR Joint Undertaking

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the SESAR Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2018/1454 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the SESAR Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.

CONTENT: the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking for the implementation of the latters budget for the financial year 2016.

This decision is accompanied by a resolution of the European Parliament containing the observations which form an integral part of the discharge decision in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016 (please refer to the summary dated 18.4.2018).

In this resolution, Parliament welcomed the signing of the renewed Eurocontrol/SESAR Joint Undertaking agreement in 2016, which outlines the new role of Eurocontrol as a co-founder of SESAR and includes a series of commitments and engagements regarding the implementation of SESAR 2020. It welcomed the expansion of membership to 19 members, representing over 100 companies across the industry, who will participate in the industrial research, validation and demonstration activities of SESAR 2020. It took note of the adoption of the first edition of the Joint Undertaking’s Single Programming Document for the period 2017-2019.

Parliament also welcomed the publication of the ‘SESAR European Drones Outlook Study’ in November 2016 and considered that a variety of innovations, including technologies related to Air Traffic Management, are required to safely integrate drones into European airspace. It noted with interest its overview of the development of the European drone market to 2050.