In preparation for the European Commission’s Drone Strategy 2.0, the Drone Leaders’ Group has set out a high-level vision and an ambitious pathway to make Europe a global leader in drones in a final report released on 26 April. The report includes concrete objectives over eight thematic areas in drone policy, along with recommendations.
The Drone Strategy 2.0 aims to 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 Commission will now finalise the ‘Drone Strategy’ which will be adopted in the last quarter of 2022.
The report includes 15 SMART objectives to measure progress on achieving the vision and the targets to be reached by 2030.
Additionally, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will continue to contribute to the development of Innovative Aerial Services and Innovative Air Mobility with a new proposed regulatory package soon to be published for public consultation.
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.
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