The European Drone Sector: Towards a New Configuration of Actors

Various studies on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), commonly known as "drones," have paid attention to their military use, especially conducted by the U.S. government. However, owing to their dual-use capacity and innovative applications, the civil use of RPAS gained importance within surveillance, transport, detection and data collection. Due to their rapid evolution for civilian applications, their utilisation by commercial, professional and leisure users, a series of challenges related to operational restrictions and societal concerns (security, safety, liability, data protection) have emerged. This notwithstanding, only little research on the scope of the European Union's (EU) initiatives in this sector has so far been carried out. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of drone operations as a whole is needed to better acknowledge the broad drones-related issues and the way the EU tackles them. This paper identifies the configuration of relations and analyses the power relationships between European, national and international, public and private, civil and military actors who are part of the European "drone community" (rule makers, interest groups, manufacturers, operators and users) and involved in the policy process towards a European policy framework for the civil use of drones. The paper will show how the European Commission, by building on its competencies and resources (market, research, regulation), has exercised its leadership capacity to initiate actions in the drone sector, and will evaluate the Commission's growing impact in the field of security.