Today the Bill on the Ratification of Eurocontrol Protocols relating to Co-operation for the Safety of Air Navigation (448 SE), initiated by the Government, passed the first reading in the Riigikogu.

Eurocontrol aims to enhance interstate cooperation in organising air traffic in Europe, including to make air traffic in European airspace smoother, safer and more efficient.

The Bill will ratify the Protocols of 1997 and 2002 to the Eurocontrol Convention under which the European Union will accede to Eurocontrol. The Republic of Estonia signed both Protocols on 26 November 2014. The European Union will become a member when the Protocol on the accession of the European Community has been ratified, accepted or approved, on the one hand, by all signatory States, and on the other hand, by all EU Member States. The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation “Eurocontrol” is an intergovernmental organisation engaged in the organisation of air navigation. It was established in 1960 and it has 41 Member States. Estonia has been a member of Eurocontrol since 1 January 2015.

The Bill on the Ratification of the Agreement Establishing the European Union ‒ Latin America and the Caribbean International Foundation (446 SE), initiated by the Government, also passed the first reading. It will ratify the Agreement establishing the EU-LAC International Foundation which Estonia signed on 25 October 2016.

The EU – Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Foundation was established in Hamburg six years ago with the aim of strengthening the EU-CELAC partnership, encouraging mutual understanding and enhancing mutual visibility between the regions. The Foundation was established pending the possible conclusion of an international constituent agreement to convert it into an international organisation.

The aim of the Agreement is to establish the EU-LAC Foundation as an international organisation with legal personality under public international law. The Foundation can be seen as an instrument of EU common foreign policy because its activities contribute to the convergence of Member States’ actions towards the Latin American and Caribbean region, ensuring that the EU is able to assert its interests and values in the framework of the partnership between the two regions.

Establishing the Foundation as an international organisation will improve its capacity to obtain funding from its member countries, many of which are unable to make financial contributions to it while it remains established under German civil law. By acquiring the status of an international organisation, the Foundation will also be able to reduce certain costs, benefit from privileges and immunities under international law and make better use of its financial and human resources. This, in turn, will allow it to maintain and develop further its activities in support of the partnership.

Verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian) http://stenogrammid.riigikogu.ee/et/201709131400.

Video recordings of the sittings of the Riigikogu can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/riigikogu (NB! The recording will be uploaded with a delay.)

Riigikogu Press Service
Marie Kukk
631 6456; 58 213 309
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]