The Thirty-Ninth General Assembly Meeting of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), of which Turkey is a founding member, was held on 12 July 2021 as video conference.

General Assembly activities were attended by the Directors General of Civil Aviation and other High-level representatives of 44 Member States in the European Region as well as the ICAO Council President and Secretary General, and high-level representatives from international organizations such as the EU Commission, EUROCONTROL, EASA, IATA, ACI-EUROPE, TIACA, ITF. In addition, African and Arab Civil Aviation Conferences AFCAC and ACAC high-level representatives also took part in the meeting.

At the General Assembly where ECAC Management was also determined, Director General of Civil Aviation Prof. Dr. Kemal YÜKSEK representing Turkey has been elected as the member of the ECAC Coordination Committee for the next three years. At the meeting, the President of ECAC presented the three-year (2018-2021) activity report, and legal and administrative separation of ECAC from ICAO, the new agreement between ECAC and EUROCONTROL, relations with European aviation organizations, as well as legal, economic, security, environmental and unmanned aerial vehicle issues were also discussed.

At the General Assembly, the ECAC work program and budget for the next three-year period have been approved, and the ECAC President, Assistants and Coordination Committee (CC) Members for this period have also been determined by the election. To the President of ECAC, Mr Alessio Quaranta (Italy); to the Vice Presidents; Damien Cazé (France), Johann Friedrich Colsman (Germany), Raúl Medina Caballero (Spain), and to the Member of the ECAC Coordination Committee Elisabeth Landrichter (Austria), Dragan Djurovic (Montenegro), Piotr Samson (Poland), Luis Miguel Ribeiro (Portugal), Gunnar Ljungberg (Sweden), Prof. Dr. Kemal Yüksek (Turkey) and Rannia Leontaridi (United Kingdom) were selected. Our country, which plays an active role in the field of civil aviation, has been re-elected as a Member of the ECAC Coordination Committee(CC) with this election.

Our Director General Prof. Dr. Kemal YÜKSEK was also elected to the ECAC Coordination Committee as the focal point responsible for Pan-European issues.

The 191st Coordination Committee Meeting held on 13 July 2021 was convened under the chairmanship of Alessio Quranta, the new president of ECAC. The most important agenda of the meeting, which was also organized as a video conference, was the 2022 ICAO Council Elections.

Speaking on behalf of Turkey, our Director General Prof. Dr. Kemal Yüksek touched upon the Pan-Europe issue and emphasized that ECAC does not only consist of member states of the European Union, but that ECAC should represent the entire European Region. He stated that Turkey, which has recently made significant progress in the field of civil aviation, has become the sixth country to make the largest financial contribution to ECAC.

For this reason, he declared that Turkey will take an active role in the international arena, and new criteria for being a candidate for the next ICAO Council Membership are required to be determined, and a more fair and sustainable method should be adopted by proposing the 4+4 model to be a candidate for ICAO Council Membership.

At the meeting, the draft agenda of the Special Meeting of Directors General to be held in Albania on 26-28 August 2021 was determined.

Respectfully Announced to the Public.