The European Union and Latin American states celebrated yesterday the launch of a new project to enhance their ties in civil aviation.

This four-year project, managed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA),aims to enhance aviation safety, and promote the political, economic and environmental partnership between the EU and Latin America in the domain of civil aviation.

The project will particularly focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and the Regional Safety oversight Organisations (RSOOs) in the region.

Luc Tytgat, Strategy and Safety Management Director of EASA, said “Latin America has a fast developing aviation sector and a long-standing relationship with Europe and EASA in this area. With this project, we are taking this partnership to the next level.

It is an ambitious project that will cover a wide range of areas of mutual interest and we look forward to working closely with our Latin American and Caribbean partners. In addition, the project aims to promote closer cooperation also between the EU and Latin America and Caribbean aviation industry actors.”

The project areas of activities will also include environmental policy and technical cooperation based on EU standards. The €7 million project is funded by the European Union.