Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added82. 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;

Added83. 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;

Added84. Highlights the need to expand such capabilities to cover all Member States, particularly the areas around critical infrastructure and populated areas;

Added85. 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;

Added86. 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;

AddedDrone wall

Added87. 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;

AddedStreamline certification

Added88. 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;

Added89. 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;

Added90. 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;

Added91. 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;

AddedIntra-EU transfers

Added92. 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;

Added93. Calls for the removal of unnecessary bureaucratic barriers and red tape which delay operational readiness;

Added94. 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;

AddedEU-origin criteria compliance

Added95. Calls for the reshoring of manufacturing to avoid disproportionate dependence on third countries, in particular China, for the production of drone systems;

Added96. 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;

Added97. 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;

Added98. 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;

Added99. 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;

Added100. 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;

AddedEDF grant structure and awarding criteria

Added101. Recommends incentivising EDF grants to ensure:

Added1) that competitions give vendors extra points to companies sourcing components from the EU;

Added2) that tenders are open to select third countries such as Ukraine and third countries with Strategic Partnership Agreements with the EU;

Added3) staff-to-staff exchanges on the sourcing of components;

Added102. Calls on the EDA to assess vendors on their operational impact and cost-efficiency in completing mission objectives rather than focusing solely on unit price;

Added103. Encourages the Member States to permit conditional fielding of and experimentation with systems not yet fully certified for urgent operational use with real-time evaluation in controlled environments;

Added104. Encourages the EDIP and other financial instruments to prioritise the financing of regional drone manufacturing hubs with shared infrastructure and regulatory fast-tracking, particularly among front line states;

AddedRegional Manufacturing Hubs

AddedC-UAS and regional manufacturing hubs

Added105. Calls on the Member States to urgently accelerate the expansion of European drone and anti-drone development and production capacities, including through the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument;

Added106. Calls on the Commission to propose an EU drones package focusing on drone and anti-drone systems and auxiliary capabilities, which should contain a strategy for using existing instruments to stimulate research and development and the localisation of critical supply chains and a regulation on the use of drones in civilian and military contexts that is fit for the present threat scenario; calls for increased investments focusing on the integration of next-generation digital technologies into drone and anti-drone defence systems to enhance their resilience, scalability and efficiency;

Added107. Calls for the establishment of national hubs for drone testing, certification and interoperability across the EU;

Added108. Emphasises that such hubs would facilitate the testing and certification of UAV and C-UAS systems in line with EU and NATO standards;

Added109. Emphasises the need for drone and C-UAS testing, production and training, with the aim of strengthening the external borders and deterring hybrid aggression;

Added110. Stresses that regional drone manufacturing hubs should be co-located with dual-use logistics nodes connected to the TEN-T, enabling seamless movement of military and civil drone assets, spare parts and operators across borders in an integrated manner across the EU and in line with any future ‘drone wall’ concept;

Added111. Supports the creation of maintenance centres co-located with NATO facilities with appropriate technical equipment to enable rapid servicing of C-UAS assets;

AddedQualified manufacturers, fair competition and regional ecosystems

Added112. Emphasises that the European drone market should develop under the principles of fair competition, innovation, and open access for qualified manufacturers; notes that stability of demand and clear long-term perspectives are essential for the sustainability of European drone producers;

Added113. Highlights the importance of scaling up local industrial capacity to ensure competitiveness, resilience and the long-term viability of the European unmanned systems sectors;

Added114. Stresses that the benefits of drone-related innovation and manufacturing should be geographically balanced;

Added115. Calls for the creation of innovation corridors and testing sites across all regions of the Union, to ensure access to funding and to stimulate local ecosystems of start-ups, SMEs and research institutes contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty;

Added116. Notes that actions related to drone and anti-drone capabilities lack long-standing pre-established practices and thus urges the Union and its Member States to take advantage of the fact by ensuring from the outset that planning, research, development, procurement and management of such capabilities are increasingly done through a European lens and that there is access to critical sovereign technologies related to drone- and anti-drone warfare in the Union;

Added117. Calls for ensuring that EDF eligibility criteria are adjusted to ensure higher scoring for joint procurements with more equitable geographical representation of Member States, ensuring that consortia being built are in a position to ramp up their defence industrial production;

AddedInnovation, R&D clusters and critical component manufacturing

Added118. Calls on the Commission to adapt its defence and defence industrial policy instruments to ensure that they are fit for purpose to support the development of drone and anti-drone capabilities;

Added119. Calls for EU funding to support the creation of an advanced drone component manufacturing hub, particularly in regions with strong engineering and IT sectors by contributing to both regional development and the Union’s strategic autonomy;

Added120. Calls on the EDF to finance multi-national R&D clusters focused on drone propulsion, AI autonomy and hardened C2 links;

Added121. Stresses the importance of directing strategic investments to relevant industrial and technological hubs across the EU and supporting raw material processing, semiconductor production, battery manufacturing, drone assembly and C2 integration, while ensuring that such investments also strengthen the broader European defence industrial base;

AddedFast-track fielding

AddedDrone innovation accelerator and experimentation

Added122. Welcomes the first European Defence Innovation Operational Experimentation (OPEX) campaign launched by the EDA and invites the EDA to transform it into a standing drone and C-UAS innovation accelerator for fast-track fielding and to validate front line feedback, accelerate prototyping, and fast-track fielding through short competitive calls in order to enable progress and innovation;

AddedProcurement flexibility and accelerated acquisition

Added123. Calls on the EDA to permit Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts to ensure that a baseline supply is met;

Added124. Calls on the EDA and other tendering agencies to establish a dedicated acquisition track for UAS for off-the-shelf procurement of advanced UAS to bypass conventional multiyear acquisition processes and service contracts;

Added125. Calls for ensuring that EDF projects and other EU joint procurement initiatives in defence have priority rating orders that aid speedy acquisition processes and reduce complications in procurements;

AddedInclusion of SMEs and non-traditional vendors