EU Internal Market Sub-Committee looks at civil use of drones
By natwei_lngozg on 10 July 2015
Lord Wei sits on the EU Internal Market Sub-Committee. At a meeting on 6th July 2015, the Committee looked at the Government response to the Civil Use of Drones in the EU.
It made a number of comments:
- It welcomed the Government’s continuing commitment to actively contribute to the development of harmonised safety rules and light regulation for civil drones across the EU.
- It asked for more information on making SME participation in EU consultation easier and the governance structure to ensure legislation is drafted in good time.
- It recommended that national aviation authorities, such as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK, be resourced and provide more resources to the policy and monitoring processes.
- It was pleased to note that the Government is continuing to invest in the key technologies needed to support the industry in the future.
- It reported concerns about the challenges SMEs faced in accessing EU level funding for R&D.
- It asked for more information on sharing of data from various UK and EU authorities to assess the risks of different drone operations.
- It congratulated the Government on its proactive approach to working with NASA on civil drone related issues and in particular, the creation of an online database to track and identify small drones flying below 500ft. It also asked what progress had been made on this.