The EACCC: coordinating Europe’s crisis response

The European Commission and EUROCONTROL established the European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell (EACCC) on 19 May 2010.

Role

The main role of the EACCC is to support coordination of the response to network crisis situations impacting adversely on aviation, in close cooperation with corresponding structures in States.

This includes proposing measures and taking initiatives to coordinate a response to crisis situations, and in particular, acquiring and sharing information with the aviation community (decision makers, airspace users and service providers) in a timely manner.

Composition

In accordance with the Network Manager Implementing Rule EU 677/2011, the EACCC composition includes:

• a representative of the EU Member State holding the Presidency of the European Council,
• a representative of the European Commission, a representative of the EASA,
• a representative of EUROCONTROL (Chairman),
• a representative of the military, a representative of the ANSPs,
• a representative of airports, and
• a representative of airspace users.

The composition of the EACCC may be augmented on a case-by-case basis by experts, depending on the specific nature of the specific crisis.

The EACCC coordinates with relevant State focal points from the early stages of the crisis onwards. Sharing information and linking national contingency plans with those established at the network level, as well as coordinating a response and mitigation actions are essential parts of the EACCC role in establishing a consistent approach across Europe.

Steps taken in the event of a crisis

In the event of a crisis:

• the EACCC chairperson contacts the relevant State Focal Points and those at risk at the beginning of any crisis, as well as relevant expert organisations, depending on the type of crisis (e.g VAAC, ESA, etc..)
• the EACCC is convened via meetings or teleconferences,
• the remaining State Focal Points are contacted,
• a crisis-mitigation policy is discussed, agreed and approved by the EACCC. The relevant State Focal Points provide a link with internal structures at the national level and, where appropriate, coordinate the response and mitigating actions at the national level in accordance with national procedures.
• When the crisis is resolved, the EACCC is deactivated.
• A debriefing EACCC session is held to address the lessons learned and remaining actions.

The EACCC gathers, prepares and shares any relevant information with the entire aviation community, ensuring that consistent messages are issued.

To achieve this, the EACCC prepares factual assessments of the situation for communications purposes. Through a nominated communications focal point, the EACCC ensures that consistent information, based on the factual assessment of the situation made by the EACCC, is transmitted to EC/EASA/EUROCONTROL as Network Manager, the civil and military authorities of affected States and corresponding NSAs/ANSPs, airlines and airports.