Individual aircraft identification should be established in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) procedures before air traffic services using a surveillance system are provided for the aircraft.

Seamless operations dependon the unambiguous and continuous identification of individual aircraft operating as general air traffic under instrument flight rules throughout the airspace of the single European sky.

The current method for identifying individual aircraft uses discrete secondary surveillance radar transponder codes ("SSR codes" – ), assigned in accordance with ICAO procedures and the air navigation plan for the European region.

Traffic growth over the last decade has resulted in a routine lack of available discrete SSR codes to meet demand during peak periods, and so individual aircraft identification in European airspace cannot currently be guaranteed.

An initial operational capability to use the downlinked aircraft identification feature should be deployed in a harmonised manner within a defined volume of airspace of the single European sky in order to reduce the overall demand for discrete SSR code assignments to achieve individual aircraft identification.

In order to optimise the availability of discrete SSR codes, improved and harmonised capabilities for the automatic assignment of SSR codes to aircraft should be deployed by those air navigation service providers that will not have a capability to use the downlinked aircraft identification feature.

A capability to use the downlinked aircraft identification feature throughout the airspace of the single European sky should be deployed in order to overcome the need for discrete SSR codes to identify general air traffic operating under instrument flight rules.

A reduction in the requirement for discrete SSR code assignments when using the downlinked aircraft identification feature - can best be achieved by the integrated initial flight plan processing system identifying those flights that are eligible for the assignment of an agreed conspicuity code and on air navigation service providers assigning the agreed conspicuity code to those eligible flights when identification using the downlinked aircraft identification feature is successful.

The downlinked aircraft identification feature can only be used to achieve individual aircraft identification where air navigation service providers deploy appropriate surveillance sensors, surveillance data processing and distribution system functionality, flight data processing system functionality, air-to-ground and ground-to-ground communications, controller display functionality, and provide for procedures and personnel training.

The degree to which air navigation service providers can actually employ the capability to use the downlinked aircraft identification feature to reduce the requirement for the assignment of discrete SSR codes is dependent on the level of equipage of aircraft with the downlinked aircraft identification feature, on the extent that the routes of those aircraft are within contiguous coverage of systems providing the capability, and on the overarching requirement to ensure efficient and safe operations.

Warnings of the unintentional duplication of SSR code assignments to more than one aircraft should be provided to controllers in order to prevent the potential misidentification of aircraft.

The uniform application of specific procedures within the airspace of the single European sky is critical for the achievement of interoperability and seamless operations.

All changes to facilities and services that are made as a result of the implementation of this Regulation should be reflected by Member States in the ICAO European Air Navigation Plan through the normal procedure for amendment.

This Regulation should not cover military operations and training as referred in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 549/2004.

With a view to maintaining or enhancing existing safety levels of operations, Member States should be required to ensure that the parties concerned conduct a safety assessment including hazard identification, risk assessment and mitigation processes. Harmonised implementation of these processes to the systems covered by this Regulation requires the identification of specific safety requirements for all interoperability and performance requirements.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 552/2004, implementing rules for interoperability should describe the specific conformity assessment procedures to be used to assess either the conformity or the suitability for use of constituents as well as the verification of systems.

In the case of air traffic services provided primarily to aircraft flying as general air traffic under military supervision, procurement constraints could prevent compliance with this Regulation.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Single Sky Committee,