The ICAO High-level Safety Conference 2010 took place during the 29th of March and the 1st of April at Montreal.

The Chairman of the Conference was Mr Radu Berceanu, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Romania, over a presence of 540 participants from 135 Contracting States and Observers representing 30 international organizations.

During the conference it was decided to endorse the transition to a continuous monitoring approach will provide ICAO with valuable safety information to be shared with the international community. As a supplement to the robust USOAP audit data, continuous monitoring will create a steady flow of information allowing for more timely identification and mitigation of emerging safety issues. ICAO will continue to work in a transparent manner, assuring that information learned through the continuous monitoring process is used to promote aviation safety. The conference has provided the guidance needed for the aviation community to implement a truly international information sharing initiative. ICAO will convene groups of experts to make safety information sharing a reality through development of common safety metrics, harmonized analysis methods as well as the required technical capabilities.

It was also discussed the role of regional safety oversight organizations and the necessity of ensuring that alternative solutions exist for implementing complex safety programmes, and the conference endorsed the safety framework as proposed by ICAO – a necessary step to ensure that the many components of our respective safety programmes are implemented in a strategic and coordinated manner.

Finally, the conference has taken an important step in endorsing the creation of a dedicated Safety Annex; only the fourth new Annex since the early years of ICAO and the first in over 25 years.