Advisory and consultative groups

The Air Navigation Services Board is an industry-led consultative board and is made up of representatives of the military, air navigation service providers, airspace users and airports from the Member States. It is designed to increase the involvement of air navigation stakeholders in preparing decisions and in aligning business planning and budgetary processes at various levels in the Organisation, while respecting the decision-making responsibilities of the Member States.

The Audit Board reports to the Permanent Commission through the Provisional Council or via the enlarged Committee concerning financial management of the Route Charges system. It is composed of six professional auditors designated by six States on a rotating basis for a term of office of four years. Half the members are renewed every two years. The Audit Board organises its work independently. It:

• examines and certifies the Agency’s annual financial statements and those of the Pension Fund, as well as the balance sheets and the administrative accounts of the route charges system;
• reports to the Permanent Commission through the Provisional Council regarding, among other things, the level of transparency of the Agency's procedures and decisions.

The Civil-Military Stakeholder Committee (CMSC) reports to the Provisional Council and the Director General and is the result of the integration of former CMIC and AAB groups into one single body.

The CMSC is the final stage of consultation for the decision preparation process for technical and operational content, advising the PC on sufficiently mature matters. All technical and operational working groups must route their proposals through CMSC to PC/CN.

The CMSC helps to ensure that the requirements of civil and military users are met in a balanced manner, while paying due regard to national security and defence interests and fully integrating industrial stakeholders in a joint EUROCONTROL civil-military collaborative decision-making process.

CMSC is composed of representatives of all Member States (civil and military), together with EU and stakeholder representatives; it functions as a state/stakeholder consultation body.

The Maastricht Decision Making Body consists of high-level civil and military representatives of the four Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) States - Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was set up to determine a common position regarding all matters relating to the operation of the air traffic services provided by MUAC in the airspace of the four States.

The Military ATM Board (MAB) reports to the Provisional Council and provides advice to the Provisional Council and, when deemed necessary, to the Director General. It is composed of senior military officers of the Member States.

The MAB ensures the involvement of military State authorities in the ATM planning and decision-making processes, to the best advantage of the civil-military ATM performance partnership.

As the military focal point for ATM/CNS matters, the MAB develops harmonised and State-agreed European military positions as a basis for further civil-military coordination within the CMSC and for the benefit of other relevant European organisations (e.g. European Union/European Commission, European Defence Agency, European Aviation Safety Agency and the SESAR Joint Undertaking).

The MAB is supported by the Military Harmonisation Group (MILHAG), which acts as a stakeholder sounding board for the Agency’s Civil-Military Division on relevant issues. The MILHAG is composed of senior military experts from the Member States; military representatives of interested non-Member States and organisations may also attend as observers.

The Standing Committee on Finance is an expert committee of the Provisional Council, to which it provides advice and makes recommendations on all budgetary and financial issues affecting EUROCONTROL.

Representatives on the Standing Committee are financial experts of the Member States.

A number of airspace user organisations and the European Commission attend the regular proceedings of the SCF with observer status.

The Pension Fund Supervisory Board (PFSB) is responsible for supervising the management of the Pension Fund. It is composed of nine members: four representing the Member States, four representing the staff and one representing the Director General (with the latter having no voting rights).

The Performance Review Commission (PRC) supports the effective management of the European air traffic management system through a strong, transparent and independent performance review and target setting system.

The PRC reports to the Permanent Commission through the Provisional Council on all matters relating to the performance review of air traffic management. The PRC is supported by the Performance Review Unit (PRU).