EUROPEAN CIVIL AVIATION CONFERENCE - CONFÉRENCE EUROPÉENNE DE L'AVIATION CIVILE

Security

Aviation security is a core activity of the European Civil Aviation Conference. ECAC's work in this area focuses on ensuring security measures are in place to protect civil aviation against acts of unlawful interference.

Aviation security measures are described in ECAC Doc 30, Part II, a policy statement adopted by all 44 ECAC Member States.

It includes security provisions at national and airport level in addition to specific baseline measures for securing airports, aircraft, passengers, cabin baggage, hold baggage, cargo and mail, in-flight supplies and airport supplies. Provisions on in-flight security, ATM and cyber security and the management of threats and hijackings are also included in Doc 30, Part II. Its annexes support the understanding and implementation of these measures by ECAC Member States. Additionally, the ECAC Aviation Security Handbook provides best practices in the fields of risk management, training and human factors, cyber security, security culture, landside security, behaviour detection and other security measures.

Doc 30, Part II (Security), its Annexes and the ECAC Aviation Security Handbook documents are regularly updated, and new documents are developed by ECAC task forces and study groups. Aviation security documents are classified/contain security sensitive information and are only shared with ECAC Member States through their single points of contact.

The ECAC work programme for security matters is delivered by an organisational structure which was established in 2006. It ensures an efficient delivery of the tasks as well as an optimal use of national expertise in the technical and operational field. 

This structure includes a Security Forum (SF) and three task forces: the Guidance Material Task Force (GMTF), the Technical Task Force (TTF) and the Training Task Force (TrTF).

  • The Security Forum (SF) ensures the coordination and exchange of information between all ECAC Member States and industry stakeholders on topics of common interest. It discusses mainly strategic issues which, once considered important by the forum, are elaborated in more detail by the appropriate task forces and study groups.
  • The Guidance Material Task Force (GMTF) is composed of aviation security experts drawn from Member States, observer States, organisations and the industry, who bring in-depth knowledge ofthe development and implementation of operational requirements. Its role is to produce best prac-tices and guidance material to support Member States' implementation of Doc 30 recommenda-tions.
  • The Technical Task Force (TTF) aims to develop technical specifications and Common Testing Methodologies for different categories of security equipment. The TTF provides technical expertisein support of the ECAC Common Evaluation Process (CEP) of security equipment and serves as aforum to exchange recent developments in aviation security technology.
  • The role of the Training Task Force (TrTF) is to develop guidance material and best practices for Member States on training in aviation security, as well as best practices for selection and assessment of security personnel.

Several study groups are also established to support the work of these task forces, membership of which includes Member States, observer States and organisations (e.g. European Commission, IATA and ACI EUROPE), as appropriate:

  • Behaviour Detection Study Group (BDSG) serves as a platform for scientific cooperation between experts, as well as an arena for States to harmonise policies, promoting ongoing developments and stimulating cutting-edge research to improve behaviour detection techniques.
  • Explosive Detection Dogs Study Group (EDD) creates guidance and best practice material to pursue harmonisation of the use of explosive detection dogs (EDD) in ECAC Member States.
  • Study Group on Cyber Security in Civil Aviation (CYBER) develops guidance material and best practices on cyber security for ECAC Member States and aims to improve the cyber resilience of ECAC Member States. The study group also keeps the relevant ECAC Doc 30 recommendations and its annexes up to date.

ECAC security organisational structure

ECAC Security - Organisational Structure

ECAC News on security matters

ECAC News n°77 - Aviation Security ECAC News n°67
 

ECAC Spotlight on security matters

ECAC News n°74 - Spotlight on the ECAC Behaviour Detection Study Group (Carmen Feijoo) ECAC News n°70 - Spotlight on the Training Task Force (Nina Smith) ECAC News n°66 - Spotlight on ECAC Common Evaluation Process (CEP) of security equipment (Julien Levet)
ECAC News n°64 - Spotlight on Security Forum (Urs Haldimann) ECAC News n°61 - Spotlight on BDSG (Sven Keijsers)