12.11.2010 Official Journal of the European Union L 295/35 REGULATION (EU) No 996/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 October 2010 on the investigation and prevention of accidents and incidents in civil aviation and repealing Directive 94/56/EC (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in particular Article 100(2) thereof, ) Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), (5) After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Having regard to the opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor (%), Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (%), Whereas: (©) (1) A high general level of safety should be ensured in civil aviation in Europe and all efforts should be made to reduce the number of accidents and incidents to ensure public confidence in air transport. (2)  The expeditious holding of safety investigations of civil aviation accidents and incidents improves aviation safety and helps to prevent the occurrence of accidents and incidents. ) (3)  Reporting, analysis, and dissemination of findings of safety related incidents are fundamentally important to improving air safety. Therefore the Commission should (") Opinion of 27 May 2010 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () 0] C 132, 21.5.2010, p. 1. (’) Position of the European Parliament of 21 September 2010 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of *) 11 October 2010. @) O] O] bring forward a proposal to revise Directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2003 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation (*) before 31 December 2011. The sole objective of safety investigations should be the prevention of future accidents and incidents without apportioning blame or liability. Account should be taken of the Convention on Inter- national Civil Aviation, signed in Chicago on 7 December 1944 (the Chicago Convention), which provides for the implementation of the measures necessary to ensure the safe operation of aircraft. Particular account should be taken of Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention and of its subsequent amendments, which lay down international standards and recom- mended practices for aircraft accident and incident inves- tigation, as well as the understanding of the terms of State of Registry, State of the Operator, State of Design, State of Manufacture and State of Occurrence used therein. According to the international standards and recom- mended practices set out in Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention, the investigation of accidents and serious incidents is to be conducted under the responsibility of the State where the accident or serious incident occurs, or the State of Registry when the location of the accident or serious incident cannot definitely be established as being in the territory of any State. A State may delegate the task of conducting the investigation to another State or request its assistance. Safety investi- gations in the Union should be conducted in a similar way. The lessons learned from the implementation of Council Directive 94/56/EC of 21 November 1994 establishing the fundamental principles governing the investigation of civil aviation accidents and incidents (°) should be used to improve the efficiency of the investigation and prevention of civil aviation accidents and incidents in the Union. L 167, 4.7.2003, p. 23. L 319, 12.12.1994, p. 14.