Videoconference, 30 April 2025 — The Facilitation Working Group held its first meeting of the year under the leadership of its new chair, Cathy West, from the United Kingdom’s Department for Transport. The session focused on information sharing and discussing the group’s work programme.
Notable progress was reported on the ongoing review of Doc 30, Part I (Facilitation), as well as by the sub-group on persons with reduced mobility (PRM), which continues to develop guidance on the transport of assistance dogs.
Several Member States and observers discussed common areas of interest related to immigration, including in confirming the implementation approaches for States in the coming months with the introduction of the EU Entry Exit System (EES), and related issues such as crew treatment under the system.
Updates presented by Member States on their national activities revealed several common themes. These included new measures and communications to manage unruly passengers, and ensuring coordination among stakeholders to strengthen National Facilitation Programmes.
The group endorsed the decision to continue work on the transport of assistance dogs, and agreed to hold an informal session on sharing best practice for the electronic filing of differences (EFOD) to ICAO for Annex 9.