Aeronautical industry and environment: civil subsonic jet aeroplanes, registration and use. Civil aviation Convention

The Common Position follows the the Commission proposal in its two main elements: a) a "non-addition" rule, aimed at prohibiting Member States from adding acoustically modified older aeroplanes to their registers as from 1st April 1999; b) a "non-operation" rule as from 1st April 2002, aimed at stopping the operation, in the territory of the Community, of non-complying aeroplanes registered in third countries. In order to ensure a non-discriminatory treatment of all aeroplanes irrespective of their country of registration, the Common Position also contains a third element concerning the aeroplanes registered in Member States, i.e: c) a "non-operation" rule as from 1st April 2002, aimed at stopping the operation, in the territory of the Community, of non-complying aeroplanes registered in Member States. Exemptions of a temporary and exceptional nature may be granted by Member States. In view of their geographical location, the airports in the French overseas departments are not covered by the Regulation. The application of the Regulation to the airport of Gibraltar is suspended pending bilateral agreement between the Member States concerned about the use of this airport. It should be noted that the Common Position included the European Parliament's amendment, transforming the Directive into a Regulation. Similarly, amendments concerning new recitals expressing the need to monitor the development of the aircraft noise situation and, if necessary propose new measures, as well as the need to prohibit the abuse of exemptions, were incorporated as Commission and Council statements to be included in the minutes of the Council at which the Regulation is adopted.�