This case study of the Norwegian aviation authority looks at the multi-level policy field of aviation regulation. Traditionally, the field has clear intergovernmental characteristics given that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a classical IGO, has been the focal point for international cooperation among its some 190 member states since 1947. With the formalization of the European level, through the completion of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in 2008, there is now infused a clear supranational element into the field. EASA is granted formal competence to issue certificates, standardizations and regulations as well as to run inspections of its constituencies. This gives EASA the formal right to take more extensive control of constituencies’ implementation of regulations and standardizations than what is possible within the intergovernmental setup of ICAO. What occurs when the two different orders meet? Do they clash or do they merge? By applying an organizational perspective in semi-structured interviews of officials in the Norwegian aviation authority, this paper focuses on the impact of the Global and European administrative levels on the behaviour of national officials. In upstream processes, the emphasis is on topics such as national officials’ participation in different preparatory activities. On the downstream side, emphasized concerns from different actors such as ministries, European Commission, EASA and ICAO are the main focus. The qualitative difference between the organizational features of the global and European level is expected to have significance for the national level authorities’ participation and behaviour within the two levels of governance.
