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1. The charging scheme shall be based on the account of costs for air navigation services incurred by service providers for the benefit of airspace users. The scheme shall allocate these costs among categories of users.

2. The following principles shall be applied when establishing the cost-base for charges:

(a) the cost to be shared among airspace users shall be the determined cost of providing air navigation services, including appropriate amounts for interest on capital investment and depreciation of assets, as well as the costs of maintenance, operation, management and administration. Determined costs shall be the costs determined by the Member State at national level or at the level of functional airspace blocks either at the beginning of the reference period for each calendar year of the reference period referred to in Article 11 of the framework Regulation, or during the reference period, following appropriate adjustments applying the alert mechanisms set out in Article 11 of the framework Regulation;

(b) the costs to be taken into account in this context shall be those assessed in relation to the facilities and services provided for and implemented under the ICAO Regional Air Navigation Plan, European Region. They may also include costs incurred by national supervisory authorities and/or qualified entities, as well as other costs incurred by the relevant Member State and service provider in relation to the provision of air navigation services. They shall not include the costs of penalties imposed by Member States according to Article 9 of the framework Regulation nor the costs of any corrective measures imposed by Member States according to Article 11 of the framework Regulation;

(c) in respect of the functional airspace blocks and as part of their respective framework agreements, Member States shall make reasonable efforts to agree on common principles for charging policy;

(d) the cost of different air navigation services shall be identified separately, as provided for in Article 12(3);

(e) cross-subsidy shall not be allowed between en-route services and terminal services. Costs that pertain to both terminal services and en-route services shall be allocated in a proportional way between en-route services and terminal services on the basis of a transparent methodology. Cross-subsidy shall be allowed between different air navigation services in either one of those two categories only when justified for objective reasons, subject to clear identification;

(f) transparency of the cost-base for charges shall be guaranteed. Implementing rules for the provision of information by the service providers shall be adopted in order to permit reviews of the provider's forecasts, actual costs and revenues. Information shall be regularly exchanged between the national supervisory authorities, service providers, airspace users, the Commission and Eurocontrol.

3. Member States shall comply with the following principles when setting charges in accordance with paragraph 2:

(a) charges shall be set for the availability of air navigation services under non-discriminatory conditions. When imposing charges on different airspace users for the use of the same service, no distinction shall be made in relation to the nationality or category of the user;

(b) exemption of certain users, especially light aircraft and State aircraft, may be permitted, provided that the cost of such exemption is not passed on to other users;

(c) charges shall be set per calendar year on the basis of the determined costs, or may be set under conditions established by Member States for determining the maximum level of the unit rate or of the revenue for each year over a period not exceeding five years;

(d) air navigation services may produce sufficient revenues to provide for a reasonable return on assets to contribute towards necessary capital improvements;

(e) charges shall reflect the cost of air navigation services and facilities made available to airspace users, taking into account the relative productive capacities of the different aircraft types concerned;

(f) charges shall encourage the safe, efficient, effective and sustainable provision of air navigation services with a view to achieving a high level of safety and cost-efficiency and meeting the performance targets and they shall stimulate integrated service provision, whilst reducing the environmental impact of aviation. To that end, and in relation to the national or functional airspace block performance plans, national supervisory authorities may set up mechanisms, including incentives consisting of financial advantages and disadvantages, to encourage air navigation service providers and/or airspace users to support improvements in the provision of air navigation services such as increased capacity, reduced delays and sustainable development, while maintaining an optimum safety level.

4. The Commission shall adopt detailed implementing rules for this Article in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 5(3) of the framework Regulation.