The Global Unmanned Traffic Management Association (GUTMA) is to join the EU Drone Leaders’ Group. This group is assisting the European Commission in the preparation of its “Drone Strategy 2.0 for a smart and sustainable unmanned aircraft eco-system in Europe”.
The EU Drone Leaders’ Group is a high-level policy body established by the Directorate General of Transport of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. It will gather regulators, institutional personalities and industries in a series of meetings that will take place until the official adoption of the strategy, planned for the end of 2022.
The new Drone Strategy emerges within the context of Europe’s twin transition towards a
more sustainable and digital economy. The introduction of drone technologies and the emergence of
large scale drone operations, as proposed by GUTMA, will contribute to both these objectives. Respectively:
- The increasing usage of electrically-powered unmanned solutions for transport services can play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gases emissions and support the success of the European Green Deal.
- The automation of traffic management services using new broadband network technologies such as 5G and 6G will help digitalize the transport ecosystem, support the development of smart-cities and enable digital spillovers to other sectors of the economy.
The Drone Strategy 2.0 is also aimed at creating and strengthening the existing synergies between the civilian and airspace industries; the development of a shared framework requires the cooperation of public authorities, industries and service providers at all levels of the supply chain. The Strategy will show the way to overcome the current obstacles preventing drone technologies from unleashing their full potential in a number of applications, from transport and communication to Earth Observation and pollution monitoring.
A crucial step in this direction is represented by the U-Space services market, which represents the most advanced framework to make large-scale, safe and accessible drone operations in Europe a reality. GUTMA will continue to develop standards for the industry in collaboration with Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and push for concerted actions with regards to flight rules and fair procedures to enter the market.
Within the Drone Leaders’ Group, GUTMA will be represented by Sebastian Babiarz, Co-President of the association. If you are a GUTMA member and wish to relay inputs and messages to the Commission before each meeting, you can reach out to Secretary-General Koen de Vos or the Association’s Secretariat. The first meeting will take place in Brussels on the 20 October 2021.
For more information visit:
www.gutma.org
