One of the highlights of this year’s General Assembly meeting in November was the celebration of ECA’s 20th anniversary. For this occasion we invited all previous Presidents, Secretary Generals and thanked them as well as our many volunteer experts and our Member Associations for their support and work that made it possible to be where we are today.

We started in 1991 with 1st President Roger Mulberge from BALPA and 12 Member Associations. We are now 38 Member Associations and more than 38.500 pilots. In 2006, ECA was restructured and became the European body of IFALPA. It made me feel humble to see what the ‘pioneers’ did in the early years. Unfortunately, we still face some of the same challenges.

Already at the beginning, pilot fatigue and Flight Time Limitations was one of our main concerns and we had European action days on this important safety issue in 2003, 2009 and again this year in June. But still a lot of progress is made to obtain safe, science-based FTL rules that protect passengers and crew against the safety risks of pilot fatigue. With the support of all our Member Associations, their pilots and the ECA staff we can – and will – make a difference!

During this General Assembly we showed how the current ECA Executive Board sees the future of ECA. This also included the adoption of a new visual identity for ECA and we are convinced this will further enhance the professional recognition ECA has and deserves.

Further in this month’s Cockpit News you can read about the “Advance Arrangements’ related to accident investigations that have to be set up in every EU country. We see that sometimes the investigations are delayed or compromised by the judicial system in some states. The EU Institutions acknowledged this by requiring that Advance Arrangements between the judicial system and the accident investigation board must be in place in every European state. ECA prepared a ‘template’ that can be used as a model by the regulators anywhere in Europe. Using this template as a basis will make sure that accident investigations will be undertaken efficiently and that safety information provided by pilots and other safety professionals will continue to be available to enhance aviation’s safety records.

I would like to end by stating that celebrating our 20th anniversary made me proud to be part of ECA. Looking at our milestones and our history shows that ECA has been – and will continue – fighting for aviation safety in Europe and the rights and conditions of our members.

To all of you a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2012 – which will be a decisive year for Europe’s aviation safety!