Air transport safety, civil aviation: prevention of accidents, collect and dissemination of information

The Conciliation Committee reached agreement by an exchange of letters on the proposed reporting scheme. The resulting compromise was as follows: - amendment 1 (proceedings) was accepted with the addition of the mention "without prejudice to the applicable rules of penal law", which is consistent with the reference to cases of gross negligence. Accordingly, the reference to "similar proceedings" proposed by the Council was rejected; - amendment 2 (voluntary confidential reporting) was completely re-drafted in order to establish a clear distinction between mandatory and voluntary reporting and their distinct scopes. Thus, in addition to the system of mandatory reporting, Member States may designate bodies to put in place a system of voluntary reporting to collect and analyse information on observed deficiencies which are not required to be reported under the system of mandatory reporting, but which are perceived by the reporter as an actual or potential hazard. In that case, Member States shall establish conditions for the "disidentification" (removing from reports submitted all personal details pertaining to the reporter which might lead to his/her identity) of voluntary reports. Finally, Member States shall ensure that relevant information deriving from the analysis of this reporting is stored and made available to all parties so that it can be used for improving safety in aviation.�