MEPs have backed an agreement reached between the European Council and European Parliament negotiators on EU-wide principles for drones and drone operators to ensure a common level of safety and give operators and manufacturers the predictability to develop products and services.  

Under the new rules, drones would need to be designed so that they can be operated without putting people at risk. Based on risk related to, for example, the weight of the drone or area of operation, the drone would need additional features, such as automated landing in case the operator loses contact with the drone. or collision avoidance systems.

The MEPs said drone operators need to be aware of all the rules that apply to them and must be able to operate a drone safely, without putting people or other airspace users at risk. This means that some drone operators would be required to go through training before they can operate a drone.

To help identify the drone operators if there is an incident, operators of drones would need to be on national registers and their drones marked for identification. This would not apply to operators of the smallest drones.

Based on the key principles, the European Commission was tasked with developing more detailed EU-wide rules, such as maximum altitude and distance limits for drone flight, and which drone operations and drones would need to be certified based on the risk they pose.

The rules would also determine which operators need additional training and to be registered and which drones would need to have additional safety features.

The provisional agreement was approved with 558 votes in favour, 71 against and 48 abstentions. The rules now need to be approved by the EU ministers.

Currently, drones lighter than 150kg fall under the jurisdiction of national authorities and therefore manufacturers and operators are subject to different design and safety requirements.