Single European Sky

The European Union's airspace is organised around national borders. At the end of the 1990s, the European Commission launched the Single European Sky (SES) project to remove these national borders.

A first package of measures was adopted in 2004 (SES 1), but as it did not achieve the expected results, the project was updated in 2009 (SES 2).

The SES 2+ proposal aims to tackle two major problems in European skies. The first is the lack of efficiency in air navigation. Removing national borders allows the creation of shorter, more direct routes, thereby reducing fuel consumption.

The second problem is the fragmentation of air traffic management systems. The current 28 national blocks will all be replaced by a network of 9 regional blocks (FABs), which have already been created but are not yet operational.

FABEC

As part of the Single European Sky package, the Member States have created functional airspace blocks (FABs) with the aim of managing airspace in a more integrated and efficient way, resulting in faster and more efficient air routes.

Luxembourg has joined the initiative of Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland to create the FABEC (Functional Airspace Block Europe Central).

For many years, regional air traffic control of flights in Luxembourg's middle airspace has been delegated to Belgocontol and upper airspace control to Eurocontrol's Maastricht Upper Aera Control Center (MUAC), an international organisation of which Luxembourg is a founding member.

The framework agreement for this treaty was signed on 2 December 2010 by the competent civil and military authorities in Brussels. It lays the foundations for the development of a common airspace policy and the joint design of the airspace structure.

At the same time, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the regulatory and supervisory authorities of the 6 Member States.