An assessment of the regulation of air cargo security in Europe: A Belgian case study

The discovery of explosive devices concealed in air cargo in October 2010 triggered an action plan to strengthen air cargo security in Europe. This paper addresses the potential implications for different actors with respect to the introduction of recent European Union (EU) regulation. The focus is on the legislative efforts to reinforce air cargo security and, in particular, the issue of third countries flights to Belgium. Based on existing literature, a review of the legislation and several interviews with experts and different stakeholders in Belgium, it can be concluded that the current air cargo and mail security framework is not satisfactory. Evidence from both the literature review and the interviews points to a necessary policy paradigm shift towards a risk assessment based security process. Special emphasis should be put on a collaborative industry driven supply chain security and the urgent need to harmonize air cargo security procedures at EU level.