European Union (EU) National Aviation Authorities (NAA) have agreed to increase cooperative efforts to harmonise national approaches to implementing EU drone regulation by extending the work of the National Aviation Authority Regulation Implementation Coordination (NAARIC) group. NAARIC was formed in 2019 by the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management of the Netherlands in cooperation with the NAAs of Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherland and Spain. By January 2020 NAARIC had grown to include the NAAs of Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom.
At the fourth NAARIC meeting, which took place in The Hague, The Netherlands on 16 January 2020 NAAs present agreed to align NAARIC activities closer to those of Drone REGIM (See box). The meeting also agreed to:
- Constitute one single group (NAARIC) federating the 18 NAAs of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the BeNeLux General Secretariat, which fulfills the group’s Secretariat function.
- Collaborate with Drone REGIM (see box) and use its “SharePoint” web site. Furthermore, the newly extended NAARIC Group defined the urgent priorities that were to be addressed jointly by NAARIC and Drone REGIM (in view of the application date of the EU drone regulation):
- Definition & creation of recommendations concerning the online examination of remote pilots in the “Open” operational category (as required under the terms of the EU drone regulation). This implies, amongst others, collaboration to create a common database of pertinent examination questions.
- Creation of a NAARIC technical subgroup on examination & nomination of the subgroup leader.
- Usage of the Drone REGIM “SharePoint” to gather all relevant information.
- Production of a contact list of the relevant NAA representatives.
- Creation of an inventory of existing national standard scenarios & standard scenarios currently being worked on by NAAs and posting of these standard scenarios on the Drone REGIM “SharePoint”.
According to coordinating association UVS International:
“In addition, the meeting attendees agreed on the necessity of creating a clear communication plan (in coordination with EASA) aimed at informing the general public, recreational drone users, the professional drone community [manufacturers (systems & sub-systems), operators, service suppliers, research organisations, flight schools, Qualified Entities/Notified Bodies, ANSPs, academia, regulatory authorities (at national & European level), training organisations, test / demo / training ranges, technology clusters, national & multi-national associations/federations], as well as all levels of government. This communication plan should take into account printed & electronic documents, web sites, social media, blogs, conferences and workshops. The message content should be uniform throughout Europe and multi-lingual. The next NAARIC/Drone Regim Plenary meeting will take place in Paris, France on 4 June 2020.”
| Drone REGIM – origins and purpose
The Drone REGIM (REGulation IMplementation) initiative was initiated following the 2019 RPAS CivOps meeting in Madrid, focusing on topics of prime importance for the drone operator community not covered by the new European Union (EU) drone regulation and that had been left to the EU Member States to tackle. |
For more information
