The Commission is calling on the European Parliament and the Council to agree on its proposal from December 2015 establishing an EU-wide framework for drones.
Pending this adoption, the Commission’s Single European Sky Air traffic management Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR) – whose role is to develop the next generation of European Air Traffic Management – is making half a million euros available to support the demonstration of “geo-fencing” services. Geo-fencing can automatically prevent drones from flying into restricted zones, such as the vicinity of airports.
Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, said: “Drones offer tremendous opportunities for new services and businesses. That is why we want Europe to be a global leader.
“I am confident our modern and flexible regulatory framework will give rise to new European champions in this sector. But safety always comes first. If we don’t move fast enough, the near misses between drones and aeroplanes could one day have disastrous consequences.”
The Commission proposed in November 2016 to create an automated traffic management system for drones operating at low-level, referred to as the “U-space”. Geo-fencing is a key component of the U-space.
The call for proposals announced by SESAR aims to select one project demonstrating the active geo-fencing of drone flying below 500 feet (around 152 meters). It requires that drones users are provided with up-to-date information on no-fly zone as well as real-time alerts if they enter one. The project will build on the geo-location capabilities which are built-in in many drones today.
The latest tranche of funding comes on top of an envelope of 9 million euros that has already been earmarked for exploratory projects to speed up the development of the U-space, such as the automatic identification of drones or drone-to-drone communication.
Meanwhile Portugal’s National Civil Aviation Authority ANAC said at the end of last month that there were more incidents involving drones and aircraft in 2017 than in all of the previous four years.
In 2013 and 2014 no incidents were reported. In 2015 five incidents were reported, and in 2016, 17 incidents were reported, totalling 22 incidents in four years. But so far this year, 24 occurrences have already been reported, the majority involving passenger jets coming in to land at Lisbon and Porto airport.