On January 20, 2012, The European Institute held a breakfast discussion of the Roundtable on Transportation and Infrastructure in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania. The panelists, which included The Honorable Eligijus Masiulis, Minister of Transport and Communications for the Republic of Lithuania; François Rivasseau, Minister-Counselor and Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union; Thomas Kelly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Ambassador Vytautas Nauduzas, Ambassador-at-Large, Special Envoy on Transport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Lithuania; and Dr. Eugenijus Gentvilas, Chief Executive Officer, Klaipeda State Seaport Authority discussed Lithuania’s concerted push to become a major European Transportation hub and the impact these infrastructure priorities are having on Europe's roadmap for a single european transport area as well as on the future of NATO's Northern Distribution Network.
The neuralgic international dispute on emission fees for airlines has finally jumped to the top of the “transatlantic” in-boxes in Washington and Brussels. The issue has been venomously deadlocked for months, as described in a recent article in European Affairs (which sparked feedback, public and private, from both industry and regulatory circles). But the long-simmering dispute is now approaching a January 1 deadline – trigger date for the EU to start its program on airliners for their carbon emissions over their entire flights anywhere in the world if they use an EU airport.
On September 30, 2011, David McMillan, Director General of EUROCONTROL, offered his assessment of the future of European air traffic management (ATM). With airspace and airport capacity constraints a reality on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr. McMillan outlined the progress of the European Union's Single European Sky Initiative, including a new performance driven regime that will set binding targets on capacity, cost-efficiency and environmental impact, beginning next January. Highlighting the strong working relationship with the FAA, Mr. McMillan urged even closer European-American cooperation in developing globally interoperable ATM solutions.
The space shuttle Atlantis – an iconic vehicle in the history of U.S. aerospace activity – lifted off on its last trip to the International Space Station (ISS), on July 8, closing an era of manned space flight for NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
UPDATE: In the last eight months, Somali-based piracy has expanded – despite the US-European patrolling operations – but attacks have become less successful, due to improved defenses on tankers. The major scholarly journal Geopolicity published a report concluding that the Somalian pirates were merely acting as "profit-maximizing entrepreneurs," and as such unlikely to abandon piracy. In fact, as illustrated by the Geopolicity map below, pirates expanded their operational range via the use of motherships from which to launch smaller skiffs. A full synopsis of the report is available at the bottom. (6/8/11)
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