The EESC asks the Members States and the Commission for prompt measures to realise the "Single European Sky" and for developing a more modern and integrated vision of the air transport sector.

Recent days revealed the need for increased European co-ordination in the air transport sector. European Economic and Social Committee (EESC),  which represents European civil society, is convinced that the "ash crisis" would have been solved more efficiently with the SES in place. This initiative was supported by the European Parliament and Council over a year ago.

The EESC stressed already in a 2009 own-initiative opinion that the resilience of the European aviation is at stake and the sector needs a special and urgent focus of the EU institutions. Several measures were proposed focusing on the urgent implementation and enforcement of the already existing legislation. The bailout package to help recover the air transportation sector from the ash crisis should be considered given the potential deepening of the current economic downturn.

After the crisis, the Spanish presidency held an extraordinary meeting of the European ministers of Transport last month. It focused on improving response mechanisms that allow Europeans to react in a more agile and coordinated way in moments of crisis, and ministers called for a faster development of the SES.