The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on 17 October announced the launch of a “European Drone Investment – Advisory Platform” to support innovation and investment in drones. The initiative aims to improve access to EU support in this field, and to develop a better understanding of the market to improve investment beyond 2021.
According to Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc: “Drones offer huge potential for many economic sectors. Based on the Commission’s initiative, the EU has recently established rules on requirements for drones and drone operations providing a stable legal framework. Now, together with EIB, we want to go one step further by supporting additional investment and ensuring European leadership in innovative technology and smart applications at the service of people and business.”
According to a European Commission press release the scope of future investment may range from drones’ infrastructure, including commercial drone activities, multimodal platforms for parcel delivery, to drones’ take-off/landing zones and other Urban Air Mobility related projects. “Existing EU financing options are already available in the current financial framework, notably via the Investment Plan for Europe, Horizon 2020 and Connecting Europe Facility. The launch of the platform is followed by a study to be managed by the European Investment Advisory Hub (EIAH) that assesses the market potential and investment needs across the EU Member States. The results will highlight the possible future mechanisms of support that may be integrated in the future EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) programmes.”
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