Dominique MEREUZE Malta 13 & 14 October 2012

First of all I wish to thank heartily, on behalf of the EMF members, Adrian and all those who have helped him, for the perfect organization of this General Conference in Malta, a dream island to many of our fellow citizens all over the European Union … and beyond! This may account for the success of our meeting today, in terms of attendance, certainly one of the largest in our short history.

As regards the European matters, strictly relative to Microlights, concerning regulations (licence, medical, maintenance, airworthiness), the present situation is rather « quiet » ; make no mistake about it, it is mainly due to our actions and our attendance –still effective– to various national and international meetings (EAS, EGAST, EASA, etc…). The potential reactions of the EMF and its 40,000 pilots, should they be threatened, are a concern to our various national and European bodies. A certain number among us today regularly intervene during meetings and seminars at European level and assert our existence and opposition to any measure likely to burden our regulations or increase our constraints.

During conversations with my French or European colleagues who regularly fly under certified light aviation regulations, they always unanimously emphasize how lucky we are to avoid the very technocratic « yoke » of the EASA regulations. To us, Annex II is today a precious asset we must protect as long as it is relevant and possible. This is obviously our main and necessary task, according to our statutes, to fight for our Microlight identity in Europe and develop its practice for the benefit of the largest possible number of our fellow citizens.

Yet and besides, we must admit that we are not living and flying in a « bubble » ; we are partly concerned by some regulation points we have in common (air space, flight rules, accident records, flight safety, etc…) ; for example by the present talks and future recommendations of the « EASA GA Safety Strategy » work group whose works are in progress and whose first conclusions we have published. They might in the long run have some consequences on us with a possible EASA survey on a European « Microlight » regulation… which is not by any means a topical question!

And last, it is our duty to contribute to the improvement of our mutual regulations by providing each of us with elements of comparison, experience, success or failure; this is what we have been doing regularly throughout these past years. We can also go beyond the limits of our European Union statutes strictly speaking to share our expertise with our friends outside the European Union, from Africa and South America who particularly need it to fly freely with less constraint and within a better organized framework; we thus contribute to the promotion and development of our “Ultralight aviation”. Thank you for listening to me and I wish every success to our works in Malta.