The Helsinki Declaration has been adopted

On 22 November this year, the Helsinki Declaration was adopted with the aim of delivering advanced drone services safely and securely in Europe.

The Declaration was adopted at a high-level conference on drones jointly organised by the Commission and the Finnish authorities and falls within the context of the European Aviation Strategy.

In particular, the Declaration sets three priority areas for sector-wide cooperation in order to ensure that safe commercial drones operations are up and running by 2019:

1. The legal requirements for drones and drone operations, for the safe and effective use of the airspace,

2. Further investment in demonstrators that systematically help to open the drone services market, as well as in longer term R&D projects that prepare for more autonomous vehicles and more dense traffic; and

3. An effective standard setting process that is adapted to fast evolving digital technologies from all sectors, and uses and adapts existing standards where available.