Changes from plenary report to adopted text

54. Urges the Commission to take the necessary measures to prevent such actions;

55. Stresses that effective national civil defence strategies against drone attacks must be supported by modernised dual-use transport and communication infrastructure allowing the swift movement of counter-UAS units, mobile radar assets and repair teams, ensuring that resilience plans translate into operational mobility;

56. Considers Ukraine’s adoption of decentralised drone units with platoon-level control a valuable methodology worthy of emulation;

57. Recommends that drone strike teams with autonomous decision cycles be integrated into Member States’ armed forces brigades;

58. Urges the Commission and the Member States, together with NATO, to launch a six-month EU-NATO pilot to form, certify and validate initial company-level combat drone units for deployment with allied brigades, with a requirement to publish the pilot validation report and recommended follow-on actions;

59. Recognises that the effectiveness of UAS systems primarily depends on the accuracy of navigation while operating in intense EW environments;

60. Recommends that controlled reception pattern antennas (CRPAs) and the use of reliable global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals such as the Galileo Public Regulated Service be adopted by armed forces’ drone operators to provide a precise timing reference and reduce navigation error;

61. Emphasises the need to complement offensive UAS investments with counter-UAS systems, electronic protection measures and GNSS resilience to minimise vulnerability to enemy jamming and interference;

62. Calls for immediate funding and rapid implementation of combat drone units, both anti-tank and anti-personnel, across NATO and EU armed forces at company, battalion and brigade levels, and for these to be organically embedded within combat units across Europe; requests that Ukraine be included as a full operational and doctrinal partner in the development, training and certification process; urges the Commission and the High Representative to devise a two-year accelerated programme for procurement, training, sustainment and certification;

63. Recommends that the Member States develop, on the basis of their national defence strategies, a joint response to UAS attacks, including by jointly developing and procuring technological solutions that can be jointly deployed and are fully interoperable with NATO C2 systems and seamlessly integrated into civil air traffic management systems and the EU’s U-Space framework for drone integration to address hybrid warfare scenarios;

64. Stresses the potential and benefits of civil drones and the major transformation they have brought to mobility, logistics, emergency management and cartography, among many other fields, and notes that they already represent significant progress in addressing the EU’s security and defence challenges;

Sourcing, financing and procuring drones and C-UAS capabilities

Pre-approved vendors

65. Calls on the national and international procurement and contracting authorities, including, among others, the Commission and the EDA, to establish open and transparent pre-approved vendor lists and priority orders for critical drone components and platforms, in close coordination with the Member States and ensuring equal access for SMEs across the Union, to allow faster contracting during crises;

66. Stresses that such lists should be based on transparent and competitive selection processes that are regularly updated to reflect operational feedback (including from Ukraine), and should avoid creating long-term market favours that could distort competition; calls for the expansion of access to EU financial instruments and for procurement procedures that include start-ups and research institutions on equal terms;

67. Calls for the EU to establish an EDA-managed roster of pre-approved vendors for critical drone sub-assemblies, and notes the importance of allowing SMEs to qualify through on-site audits rather than by demonstrating full past performance, in order to facilitate their participation in the European defence industrial base;

SME support

On regional hubs and financing instruments

68. Encourages the Member States and the EDA to streamline certification and airworthiness standards to speed up integration and reduce duplication in testing and credentialling; encourages the EDIP and other financial instruments to prioritise the financing of regional drone manufacturing and C-UAS innovation hubs with shared infrastructure and regulatory fast-tracking, particularly among front line states; emphasises the importance of promoting fair labour practices, social protection and skills development for a high-quality workforce, while also supporting local communities and SMEs, with a focus on creating sustainable employment opportunities;

69. Calls for dedicated support for SMEs to access these financial instruments, including simplified application procedures and award criteria;

On SME access to funding and procurement

70. Notes that SMEs face significant barriers to accessing EU defence funds and are often excluded from large-scale procurement dominated by legacy contractors; encourages, therefore, the creation of specific mechanisms to support SME onboarding by reducing administrative burdens, introducing direct-funding instruments with tolerance for failure, and providing opportunities for mini-grants and rapid-funding tools essential for SMEs, while ensuring fair conditions through proportionate consortium requirements, reasonable guarantees and flexible payment terms; encourages the inclusion of start-ups and research organisations in procurement processes;

71. Recognises that 80 % of the European industry involved in the development, manufacture and operation of light drones consists of SMEs, which are essential for R&D and innovation in drone technology and for a swift response to unexpected changes in the industry, as demonstrated in Ukraine, and that these companies face difficulties in obtaining financing for their projects;

72. Calls on the Commission to establish a single contact point to inform and assist EU drone manufacturing SMEs in obtaining and accessing financing, given that their business structure makes it difficult for them to bear the bureaucratic burden associated with these processes;

73. Welcomes the Commission’s existing initiatives, particularly through the EDF’s EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS), to support EU defence SMEs and start-ups;

74. Calls on the EDA and the Commission to build upon these efforts by exploring additional measures to fast-track European drone SME deployment of high-impact defence systems in a way that enables these SMEs to pursue export opportunities beyond Europe – to ensure their commercial viability – while simultaneously developing European defence capabilities and facilitating integration with the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) and promoting frequent joint innovation efforts;

On SME growth, scaling and industrial integration

75. Recognises that the majority of drone industry firms are SMEs and start-ups, and that it is therefore essential to simplify procedures and support measures for SMEs, such as grants, regulatory support, integration and scaling;

76. Calls for the establishment of regional drone innovation clusters that connect SMEs, research centres and larger defence integrators to promote technology transfer and industrial synergies;

77. Recognises the EDF’s potential in aiding SME development into key suppliers and encourages programmes that aid SME capacity to source components, develop manufacturing engineering and support high levels of automation to ramp up production;

78. Encourages EDF programmes to allow more rapid scaling of SMEs via a series of funding rounds that support early growth and access to capital, product development, testing and evaluation, building on the BraveTech EU initiative;

79. Calls on the Commission to incentivise joint ventures between major European defence primes and SME drone innovators to scale up production; recommends the inclusion of Ukrainian industry in this regard;

On testing, certification and regulatory simplification

80. Recognises the lengthy period between testing and validation of drones and encourages Member States to repeal procurement constraints that cause obstruction to SME testing of key capabilities;

European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB)

81. Encourages the Member States and the Council to integrate next-generation drone technologies such as edge AI, swarm autonomy and hardened C2 links into the EDTIB, while seeking the gradual and mutually beneficial integration of the Ukrainian defence technology and industrial base and making use of long-term industrial roadmaps, flagship EDF clusters and to fast-track EDIP instruments to ensure timely adaptation and preserve the Union’s technological edge;

82. Calls for drones to be considered critical capabilities by the EU; stresses the urgent need to invest in the EDTIB to enable the mass production of affordable drones, and underlines the need for cost-effective systems that can be deployed at scale and ensure the EU becomes autonomous with regard to drone capacities; considers that the development of such capabilities must be carried out in close cooperation with Ukraine and stresses the importance of directing more EU defence investments towards joint procurement, with the support of the EDA;

83. Calls for the Union and its Member States to urgently work on concrete projects intended to fill capability gaps in the field of integrated air and missile defence, particularly related to drone and anti-drone warfare, in order to create a multilayered deep zone of technologically advanced systems with interoperable anti-drone capabilities for detection, tracking and neutralisation; underlines the equal importance of air superiority, such as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project; invites the Member States to consider using the European Defence Projects of Common Interest framework to set up the projects; recognises the need for cross-sector collaboration between the defence, cybersecurity and research communities in order to develop holistic strategies that integrate the latest digital and cyber defence technologies;

84. Highlights the need to expand such capabilities to cover all Member States, particularly the areas around critical infrastructure and populated areas;

85. Stresses, however, that these joint programmes must also be structured to ensure rapid development cycles and to actively enable the participation of innovative SMEs; underlines that such companies are often significantly more agile and inventive than traditional prime contractors, and that leveraging their creativity and speed is essential to keep pace with the evolving threat environment and field cost-effective solutions quickly;

86. Recognises that the pace of technological evolution in the field of unmanned and counter-unmanned systems is unprecedented and calls on the Commission, the EDA and Member States to adopt faster innovation and acquisition cycles, enabling rapid fielding of new drone and C-UAS technologies; stresses that lengthy certification, procurement and testing processes risk making EU capabilities obsolete by the time they are deployed;

Drone wall

87. Supports a drone surveillance and defence system (‘drone wall’) proposed by the President of the Commission, with a robust, end-to-end system encompassing advanced detection, resilient C2, and cost-effective interception capabilities and calls for a technical roadmap to be developed in close cooperation with Ukraine; insists that the Commission’s proposals must draw substantially on Ukrainian front line experience, which demonstrates that effectiveness depends not only on platform technology but on integrated command-and-control, trained personnel, and a resilient warfare ecosystem, including localised manufacturers, operators, innovators and data/analytics providers;

Streamline certification

88. Encourages the Member States, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the EDA to streamline certification and airworthiness standards to speed up integration and reduce duplication in testing and credentialling; notes that adoption of EMARs and cross-certification is a must;

89. Calls on the EASA to speed up ‘permits to fly’ application processing and define clear certification criteria for HALE/MALE-class systems in conjunction with NATO; stresses the urgent need to designate a sufficient number of auditors and streamline procedures to avoid unnecessary delays in innovation;

90. Calls for the adoption of a European framework for the rapid authorisation of border crossing and transit of UAS/drone equipment among Member States in the context of military mobility;

91. Calls on the Commission to harmonise defence-oriented drone regulatory action to create a binding EU regulatory framework for military drone operations (in parallel with civilian EASA rules); stresses that it should clarify rules of engagement, certification, military airspace use and ethical safeguards for CSDP missions and national defence planning in order to facilitate interoperability and speed up joint operations under the CSDP or NATO missions;

Intra-EU transfers

92. Calls on the Commission to simplify intra-EU transfer rules for drone and counter-drone related technology and create synergies between Directive 2009/43/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 6 May 2009 simplifying terms and conditions of transfers of defence-related products within the community and the related technology and Regulation (EU) 2021/821 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021 setting up a Union regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items;

93. Calls for the removal of unnecessary bureaucratic barriers and red tape which delay operational readiness;

94. Emphasises the need to complement offensive UAS investments with counter-UAS systems, electronic protection measures and GNSS resilience to minimise vulnerability to enemy jamming and interference;

EU-origin criteria compliance

95. Calls for the reshoring of manufacturing to avoid disproportionate dependence on third countries, in particular China, for the production of drone systems;

96. Calls on the Member States, the Commission and the EDA to urgently address the EU’s critical dependency on Chinese rare earth metals essential for the defence industry, including in the field of drone and counter-drone manufacturing; stresses the need to establish alternative and sustainable sources of rare earth extraction and processing, to invest in research and development in the area of recycling and substitution technologies, and to include these priorities in future EDF and EDIP programmes aimed at strengthening Europe’s strategic industrial resilience;

97. Asks the Commission to ensure that all drone platforms funded by European programmes and/or financial instruments comply with the respective EU-origin eligibility criteria for major sub-components and to take action to ensure that the supply of such subcomponents is reliable and guaranteed;

98. Further calls for subcontractors to be subject to the same criteria; stresses the importance of ensuring full and direct European control over human-machine interfaces and other drone-related software;

99. Calls on the Commission to ensure that all drone platforms funded by the EU budget comply with EU-origin criteria and be free from restrictions from third countries on the definition, adaptation and evolution of the product’s design, including the legal authority to substitute or disintegrate components subject to such restrictions;

100. Calls for incentives to ensure that drone platforms financed through the EDA meet the criteria for EU origin, or originate from partner countries such as Ukraine, Norway and the UK, particularly with regard to key components;

EDF grant structure and awarding criteria