The official announcement of the creation of the EC UAS Panel and its objectives was made by Daniel Calleja in the GIFAS International chalet at the Paris Air Show on 23 June 2011. During this event, Peter van Blyenburgh (UVS International) gave a short overview of the objectives of the EC UAS Panel’s first workshop that was to take place at EUROCONTROL headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on 12 July 2011.
This new initiative is meant to provide the EC with the necessary expertise and input to develop a strategy for the future of UAS in the European Union, and to identify the most pressing issues which today hinder the emergence of a UAS market.
In order to collect the necessary information and input, the European Commission announced the setting up of a process involving relevant experts from aviation rulemaking bodies and industry, and inviting them to share their knowledge on the subject of UAS insertion into civil managed airspace. For this purpose the EC indicated the organisation of a series of meetings, which would be co-chaired by DG ENTR and DG MOVE, and would also involve other European Commission services [Directorate General for Home Affairs (DG HOME), Directorate General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD), and Directorate General for Information Society & Media (DG INFSO)]. The intent is to organise five workshops spread over a rather short period of time ending in January 2012, and a wrap-up meeting in February 2012. Each workshop is to result in a report on the workshop topic. At the end of this process, a Strategy Paper will be drafted by the European Commission.
The objective of the EC UAS Panel is to produce a concise Strategy Paper, describing the current competitive situation for UAS globally, as well as the key challenges and obstacles, which need to be addressed to ensure their development and operation in Europe. It should aim at providing concrete recommendations to policy-makers on how obstacles would need to be removed to further develop the market for UAS in Europe. It is therefore important that the two elements, strategy and policy, are brought together. The paper will take both, the civil and military UAS aspects of UAS development and regulatory gaps into account. Furthermore, it will cover the whole market of UAS, from light UAS to HALE.
The first workshop took place on 12 July 2011 as planned. At this meeting the economic importance of and the market opportunities for UAS were highlighted. In particular the structure of the European UAS industrial sector, the current European UAS market, Europe’s competitive situation, the market prospects and the main applications and users were explained. In addition, the development of UAS in Europe was discussed by the participants at this meeting, and a start was made to identify the main barriers to the development of civil UAS applications. The «chef de file», responsible for the organisation of the inputs for this event was Peter van Blyenburgh, UVS International (with the support of FRONTEX, the UK Police, and industry representatives).
All presentations given at this workshop, as well as the workshop’s discussion paper and its relevant annexes, are posted on www.uvs-info.com under the heading “European Commission UAS Panel” in the main menu bar.
The European Commission is now preparing, with the support of EUROCONTROL, and with Luc Tytgat, EUROCONTROL’s Director Single European Sky, as the «chef de file», the next workshop on UAS entitled «UAS insertion into airspace & radio frequencies», which will take place at EUROCONTROL headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on 13 & 14 September 2011.
This workshop will identify the obstacles to the insertion of UAS into non-segregated airspace and outline the requisite remedial actions. In this context, the provisional programme will cover the following topics in separate consecutive sessions: Assessment of current UAS regulatory developments; National ATM/CNS perspectives & experience; Civil/military aspects; Frequency spectrum; Security; R&D innovative solutions; the industrial perspective.
The programme of this second workshop, and the relevant registration form, can be found on http://www.eurocontrol.int/events/second-unmanned-aircraft-systems-uas-eu-workshop-insertion-airspace-and-radio-frequencies.
Written contributions for the second, as well as all the following workshops, can be addressed to the European Commission at ENTR-UAS@ec.europa.eu The written contributions will be used formulate the workshop Discussion Paper.
Any questions concerning the EC UAS Panel initiative can be addressed to the same address.