On Wednesday 23 November during a high-level conference on drones, the Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, presented her “U-space” concept for the first time. This concept seeks to provide better governance for drones. The Commissioner would like to see this new aviation initiative put in place by 2019.
The Commissioner explained that there were currently three airspace categories: “space-space airspace”, which involves flights into space; “upper space airspace” used by commercial airlines and “lower level” airspace’, which the Commissioner has named “U-space”.
The “U” corresponds to the word “Urban”, but also designates ‘You’ in English, explained Ms Bulc. “U-Space” describes the airspace directly accessible by all citizens. In this new airspace, a registration system will be set up for identifying and “geofencing” (a geo-localisation system that helps modify the trajectory of drones if necessary in the event of flying over at-risk or forbidden areas) in the effort to guarantee optimum security, as well as ensure private life is respected, she added.
Using this new concept as the cornerstone of future drone governance, the Commissioner announced that she wanted to present concrete proposals on this issue next year. In this regard, the Commissioner has requested that the European Agency for Aviation Security (EASA) and the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR), which is a joint public-private partnership, to modernise Air Traffic Management (ATM) and co-operate closely to ensure that this project takes shape in 2019.
Drones occupy a significant part of the aviation strategy presented last year (see EUROPE 11438). Last August, at the request of the Commission, the EASA presented a provisional version of the regulation that will govern drone activities. It received a positive welcome from the industry (see EUROPE 11618). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)