3.2        How can information be shared with the industry?

i.        Information from competent authorities databases

Granting organisations access to occurrences stored in a competent authority database is not prevented by Regulation 376/2014 as long as the purpose of sharing this information is aviation safety. Under this condition, each competent authority can decide to provide or not access to its database (partly or entirely) to its organisations^[66]. In particular, Member States and EASA are not prevented from establishing feedback loops with organisations reporting to them, especially in those cases where identified safety issues fall under third party’s responsibility. In these cases, the feedback provided by the competent authority would help reinforcing trust in the system.

But organisations are required to respect the provisions of Regulation 376/2014 relating to disclosure or use of information on occurrences contained in their competent authority database (see Sections 3.16 and 4.7).

ii.       Information from the European Central Repository (ECR)

As regards to the ECR (which regroups all occurrences collected by competent authorities), Regulation 376/2014 prohibits direct access by organisations to this database but recognises them as interested parties, allowing them to request certain information issued from the ECR (Article 10(2)). Rules related to the possibility to request information from the ECR is contained in Article 10 to 12 of Regulation 376/2014. More information is provided in Section 4.8.

Furthermore reporting organisations receive feedback on occurrences they have transferred in various format, such as annual safety reviews and safety bulletins. Such information may be provided at national level as well as at European level. In addition, the results of analysis carried out at European level through Regulation 376/2014 are shared through the various safety processes supporting the EPAS.