NEWS FLASH

The European Commission has published its annual progress reports for those aspiring to join the European Union, giving an assessment of what each candidate and potential candidate has achieved over the last year, as well as a set of guidelines on reform priorities, including air transport. Excerpts from the reports that concern aviation are outlined below:

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The 2009 Law on civil aviation still needs to be aligned with the requirements of the European Common Aviation Area Agreement (ECAA). The authorities should continue efforts to address the chronic lack of adequately trained and qualified staff within the Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation (BHDCA), which increases the risks of safety oversight.

Montenegro

Montenegro progressed well on aligning with the technical aspects of air traffic management (ATM) but still needs to address key concerns regarding alignment with the Single European Sky (SES 2+), regulation related to the issue of the joint air navigation services provider with Serbia and must still implement the rules on the performance and charging schemes and ATM ground conformity assessment. In addition, in February 2025, Parliament ratified amendments to the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) Agreement and its Annex I, on the rules applicable to civil aviation. Good level of implementation of EU safety acquis in the domain of air crew licensing was confirmed during the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) inspection conducted in February 2025. Montenegro is moving towards the second phase of the ECAA Agreement but still needs to address outstanding concerns on the competition and State aid requirements.

North Macedonia

On aviation, the country has maintained a good level of alignment with the EU acquis and has partially aligned with the aviation safety legislation within the reporting period. More needs to be done on the remaining areas of attention on the process of regulatory alignment following the 2024 ECAA assessment visit. The IT system for certification was upgraded in the Civil Aviation Agency, to comply with the EU standards. Further efforts are still needed by the Civil Aviation Agency in relation to findings of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency as regards the safety oversight of air navigation services. Independent functioning of the air navigation service provider needs to be maintained.

Serbia

On aviation, Serbia maintains a good level of alignment with the EU acquis. Good level of implementation of EU safety acquis in the domain of air crew licencing was confirmed during the EASA inspection conducted in June 2025. No progress was made in lifting the suspension of articles on the licensing of air carriers or in normalising the lower airspace regime over Kosovo.

Kosovo

Air transport continues to face many challenges arising from Kosovo’s non-membership in several international civil aviation organisations. The NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) still manages and coordinates the Kosovo airspace. The institutional shortcomings of the Air Navigation Service Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority, as well as the lack of revenue from the airspace management, remain issues. Despite outstanding issues to complete the first-phase items of the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA), Kosovo adopted regulations of the second-phase items on aviation safety.