The Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSPs) of ten countries comprising the region from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea on November 6, 2013 in Sofia signed a strategic cooperation agreement on establishing a regional cooperation platform. The purpose of the strategic alliance titled GATE ONE, covering the area of three functional airspace blocks (FAB CE, Danube FAB, Baltic FAB) is to promote the efficiency of European Air Traffic Management through an enhanced cooperation among the participating service providers.
The agreement was signed by ANSPs of Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Parties agreed on the accession of Bosnia-Herzegovina ANSP at their next meeting in January 2014.
The airspace between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea is one of the most important gateways of the European continent: this region handles air traffic in the directions of North and South, East and West, sustaining links between the central and Nordic countries of the European Union as well as with the continent of Asia and the region of the Middle East.
The actual developments of the European Air Traffic Management industry point towards the assumption that the air navigation service providers of the region, operating under similar conditions, can only be efficient in attaining their interests in case they create a closer cooperation in the coordination of strategic issues (and the operative issues being meaningful at the regional level). Furthermore, they need to strive towards representing a consolidated position concerning common technical and economic issues affecting the region and vital to the Union-wide picture of the Air Traffic Management.