Air Traffic Control Act
The Air Traffic Control Act (FSG) was a law passed by the German Bundestag on April 7, 2006 , which was intended to prepare the privatization of air traffic control in Germany . On October 24, 2006, Federal President Horst Köhler refused to issue him because of concerns about compliance with the Basic Law .
The 37th amendment to the Basic Law of July 14, 1992 introduced Article 87d paragraph 1. It enables the state to transfer sovereign tasks of air traffic administration to public or private law organizations. Until 2009, the Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) and its subsidiary Tower Company were solely responsible for this. DFS is organized under private law as a limited liability company , the sole shareholder is the federal government . The Air Traffic Control Act would have allowed the federal government to sell all shares in DFS except for a blocking minority of 25.1 percent. Even the outsourcing of parts of the company abroad would have been covered by the law. In order to safeguard national interests, the Federal Supervisory Office for Air Traffic Control (BAF) should be founded and take over monitoring. After an amendment to Article 87d Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law on August 1, 2009, which enables the approval of foreign air navigation service providers licensed under EU law, the BAF was actually established in August 2009 with a separate law.
Since the Federal President's veto explicitly referred to the old version of Art. 87d GG, a new law to change the company shares in DFS could be introduced into the Bundestag after a corresponding amendment to the Basic Law.
The air traffic control law faced great criticism. It is still a matter of dispute how sovereign tasks and the related liability issues can be transferred to private companies.
