European Union draft regulation for civil drones released

On 12 March 2015, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) released a proposition of regulatory framework for drones within European Union.
The need for a renewed and specific regulation for the use of drones in the European Union is more and more obvious. Indeed, the increase use of drones in the European airspace left security and economic issues unresponded.

The EASA recognizes that drones are developing at a rapid pace worldwide and in particular in EU countries. To accommodate these technological developments the EASA proposes three categories of drone operations : open, specific and certified.¹ Such categories allow regulator to review every issues from the smallest drones all the way up to Airbus A320 size.
The use of expressions as « UAS », « unmanned aircraft systems », or « RPAS », « remotely piloted aircraft systems » may be abandoned for the commonly used word « drones ».

The Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc announced that the rules shall « be simple and performance based ». In other words, regulation will be business-oriented.²

The EASA aims to end public consultation by June 2015 to be able to release final regulatory proposal by December 2015. Such schedule would allow european drone industry to get an important benefit from regulation in comparison to US and other countries competitors.