Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), commonly known as drones, are atypical equipment in traditional aviation because of their wide range of variety and applications. While they have been used by the military since decades, the civil use of RPAS has gained in importance over the last years, due to their extensive commercialisation that has made them accessible for leisure, commercial and professional activities. As RPAS are evolving technologies, their full potential is not yet known but developing. However, their utilisation has quickly raised societal concerns about security, safety, privacy, data protection, insurance, liability, environmental issues which challenge the public acceptance for their growing and permanent integration in the airspace.
Hence, the main objective of this research was to examine how public authorities are shaping the regulatory framework, the production and the use of drones, with a special focus on the involved actors’ diverging interests. As the operation of drones raises cross-border issues and market access questions, the project was interested in evaluating the situation in Europe where multiple authorities overlap. The “EU-Drones” project was especially interested in how the European Union had tackled them and developed a policy framework for drones, especially through the leadership of the European Commission.
The research aimed at identifying the configuration of relations and at analysing the power relationships between European, national and international, public and private, civil and military actors who are part of the “drone community”. It analysed their tools, interests and means in the policy-process towards a European drone policy framework. Based in Brussels from 2017 to 2019, the researcher closely followed the evolution of the policy-making process by meeting the actors involved in the discussions and assessing the challenges from the early beginning of the European regulatory framework for drones until its adoption.
The “EU-Drones” project’s findings explain how the European Commission used its leadership capacity to take actions in the drone community with a clear impact on the dynamics and constituent parts of this community. Building on its competencies in the market, regulatory and research domains, the Commission pushed the European integration in a new sector and had a determinant impact on this emerging and competitive industry.
