European Commission Adopts Drone Operating Rules – May 2019

On 24 May 2019, 2 days prior to the closing of the European parliamentarian elections, the European Commission adopted EU rules (see: Implementing Act Drones & Annex to Implementing Act Drones) to ensure increasing drone traffic across Europe is safe and secure for people on the ground and in the air. The rules will apply to all operators of drones – both professionals and those flying drones for leisure. Following the technical requirements for drones, this is another key deliverable under the Commission’s Aviation Strategy for Europe whose core objectives are to maintain the highest level of safety and to support the competitiveness of the EU’s aviation industry.

Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: “The EU will now have the most advanced rules worldwide. This will pave the way for safe, secure and green drone flights. It also provides the much needed clarity for the business sector and for drone innovators Europe-wide.”

These rules, which will replace existing national rules in the EU Member States, not only address safety, but also contain important building blocks to mitigate drone related security risks. Through operators’ registration, remote identification and the definition of geographical zones, all national authorities will have means to prevent misuse or unlawful drone activities. As of 2020, drone operators will have to be registered with national authorities. In principle, the rules apply to all drones regardless of weight. However, the majority of the drones concerned will belong to the market of mass-produced drones, which merely need to meet a minimum set of requirements such as registration and electronic identification. Operators of drones weighing less than 25 kg will be able to fly those without prior permission under a certain number of conditions. Among others, such conditions are that the drone must not fly higher than 120 meter and that the operator always keeps the drone in his/her visual line of sight and flies it far away from people.

Member States will be able to define so-called “no-fly zones” where – through satellite geo-location – drones will not be allowed to enter. “No-fly zones” may include airports and airfields or city centres.

The European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will soon publish guidelines and so-called «standard scenarios» for drone operations that will help drone operators to comply with the adopted rules. The European Commission is also developing an institutional, regulatory and architectural framework for the provision of U-Space services, which aim to enable complex drone operations with a high degree of automation. Finally, a systematic review of all existing EU aviation rules is progressing to identify the necessary changes to improve applicability to drone operations.

Major Milestone

The EU has now achieved a major aviation milestone. Bravo to EASA, the European Commission Directorate General Transport & Mobility, and all other public & private organisations that made this revolutionary achievement possible, and in record time !!!

The new EU drone regulation, which was drone up in English, is currently being translated into the 24 official European languages (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish). This translation is apparently on track to be finalized before the end of May 2019 and will then lead to the official publication of the regulation.

The Way Forward

Notwithstanding the aforementioned, many challenges still remain at European level [e.g. UTM/U-Space & related flight services and integrating them into the existing air traffic management system; the required standards for the “Open” & “Specific” categories; the required “standard scenarios” (taking the JARUS guidelines on SORA into account); everything concerning the “Certified” category; urban air mobility and related matters; et cetera). In addition, there are still some critical technology bottlenecks that have to be tacked (e.g. “Detect & Avoid” & “Geo-Limitation”)].

At national level the remaining challenges include: transitioning from national rules & regulations to the new EU regulation (and the required resources); harmonizing the national implementation approaches to zoning (including cross-border zoning); drone registration; remote drone identification; remote pilot training & qualification & examination, taking the JARUS guidelines on remote pilot competency into account (and aiming at mutual recognition); flight school qualification & licensing; enforcement and involving the various required authorities (police, municipalities, airports).

In other words, the European drone community should not think that the work is over. All drone community stakeholders (public & private) should now implicate themselves and contribute to get to the next stage. At both European and national level, communication in a clear, understandable and motivating way to the drone stakeholders, as well as to the general public, will now become of prime importance.

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