The Drone Leaders’ Group set out a high-level vision and an ambitious pathway to make Europe a global leader in drones when it presented its final report on 26 April. The final report includes concrete objectives over eight thematic areas in drone policy, along with recommendations
The Drone Strategy 2.0 will also contribute to synergies between civil, defence and space industries, including an EU Drones Technologies flagship project, support the decarbonisation and digitalisation of transport, and support Europe’s strategic autonomy.
The Drone Leaders’ Group brings together individuals from 26 organisations and trade associations, including drone manufacturers and operators, U-space airspace service providers, manned aviation, national aviation authorities, UIC, the European Parliament and European partner organisations in the ATM field (EASA, SESAR JU, EUROCONTROL, EDA). The Group was tasked by the Commission to give high-level steer and provide recommendations for the development of the Strategy. The group held four plenary meetings in recent months, which included presentations by members of the Drone Informal Experts Group on urban air mobility and U-space, enhancing UAS services including the SME dimension, and on developing military/civil synergies and technology building blocks.
The drone services market is constantly increasing in terms of companies and volume of operations. However, large segments of the market are not yet mature and there are several conditions must still be addressed for drone applications to become fully operational, safe and competitive.
The Commission will now finalise the ‘Drone Strategy’ which will be adopted in the last quarter of 2022. The document was promised in the Commission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy,Search for available translations of the preceding adopted in December 2019.
Source: European Commission
