Security regulations that are a Russian version of the European Union’s (EU) Air Cargo or Mail Carrier operating into the Union from a Third Country Airport regulation, also known as ACC3, will be drawn up in response to the EU’s actions, the Russian federal air transport agency, Rosaviation, announced on 14 August.
In a statement on its website, the Russian government’s civil aviation department stated that on 4 July Russian airlines had been told by EU member states that they could no longer transport goods into the territory of those countries. The statement criticises the EU, saying that the imposiiton of ACC3 on non-EU airlines is in breach of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules and Russian confidentiality laws.
It cites the ICAO rules as saying that aviation security functions should not be transferred to a non-state organsiation. Rosaviation states that the EU expects airlines to provide confidential information and points out that this would be a criminal act for Russians.
As well as drawing up its own security requirements, Rosaviation is to address the EU’s offer to agree security measures for the EU and the Russian Federation. In July the European Commission told Air Cargo Week (ACW): “We had technical-level discussions with Russia on ACC3 issues and we will continue these discussions with them and analyse it in the same way as any other country.”
Russia faced this additional barrier to flying freight into the European Union (EU) from 1 July this year when the ACC3 rule was imposed. It had been in operation since February 2012, but it was only this July that the EU required all airlines transporting freight into EU airspace to be approved. There is a list of nations that had been given ACC3 approval because their security was deemed good enough. Russia was not incuded in this list.
The ACC3 regulations were adopted in August 2011 after the October 2010 incident when a package allegedly containing a printer ink cartridge was found to be an explosive device. This led the EC to review its aviation security legislation.
To obtain ACC3 status, an air carrier must deliver a declaration of commitments, which covers every non-EU airport from which cargo or mail is flown to the EU. The declaration sets out how an airline will ensure that ACC3 standards for security are met prior to the loading of an aircraft bound for the EU.
Airlines have to use independent validators to confirm that the security standards have been met and these are private companies.
