Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Minister Mutafchiev carried out a meeting with representatives of the Association of the Bulgarian Air Companies. He informed them about the themes discussed during his visit in Brussels, and the official decision of the European Commission. He also commented the distributed communiqué of the European Commission, regarding the aviation safety measures.

We reached an agreement, that we shall invite EASA to make an examination when we are ready for this, said Minister Mutafchiev. We must be aware that this is a very complicated process and that we, the administration, will never make a compromises, he also declared.

The inconformity, found out by European Aviation Safety Agency, concerns the insufficient administrative capacity in the Bulgarian GD "Civil Aviation Administration" in the field of the safety control and the certification of the operation suitability and the airplane maintenance. Deficient is also the personnel  of GD "CAA" and the grade of its training, in order to fulfill its tasks on the necessary level.

After the January 1, 2007 Bulgaria will be already member of the EU and EASA. The Bulgarian air companies will continue to operate to and from the EU as usually.

The protection clause imposed by the European Union do not affect the EU membership, it covers the very limited area of the airplanes flight suitability certification acknowledgement. The certificates issued by the GD "CAA" will be acknowledged as issued by a third party on the grounds of the bilateral agreements. The air companies and the administration must try hard to respond to the increased requirements. It is necessary to strengthen the control according to these requirements.

For Additional Information:
Yasen Zarev, Press Centre,
Ministry of Transport
Phone: 940 94 85
E-Mail: yzarev@mt.government.bg