The European Commission and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have officially concluded negotiations for the establishment of a Memorandum of cooperation in civil aviation research and development, in a meeting hosted by the EU Spanish Presidency.

The Memorandum will develop objective based on the use of air transport systems more efficient and greener through a legally binding framework for cooperation.

Under the Memorandum the two parties will be able to address through cooperative activities any research and development issues in civil aviation such as: safety, security, environment, performance, alternative fuels, aircraft design, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), sub-orbital airplanes, satellite-based communications and related ATM applications, etc.

The simultaneous agreement cooperation constitutes a major achievement for ensuring effective interoperability of the two ATM systems. For the EU side, the activities launched under this Annex will be carried out by the SESAR Joint Undertaking ensuring an optimal coordination of European ATM modernisation activities and the direct involvement of EU aviation industry.

Interoperability is in fact essential for airspace users as it will enable aircraft to fly in the US and in the EU airspaces with the same equipment to navigate avoiding additional costs and weights.

The parties already envisage to develop in the very near future additional Annexes, namely in the fields of aviation safety and of use of alternative fuels in aviation. Rapid implementation of the Annex provides a substantial contribution to the Single European Sky, an initiative that was supported by the Parliament and the Council for over a year.

The Commission will now propose the text for formal adoption to the Council and the European Parliament, in view of its entry into force in early 2011.

Since 2008, all airlines in the EU can make direct flights to the United States from anywhere in Europe, not only from their country of origin. The Air Transport Agreement between the EU and the U.S. abolished for the first time, all restrictions on routes, prices, or weekly flights.