EU and Ukraine to hold first meeting of Drone Alliance next week

The first meeting of the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance, which aims to accelerate the deployment of drone technologies and counter-drone capabilities across the bloc, will take place in Brussels on 11 September.

Source: Euractiv, citing sources, as reported by European Pravda

Details: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen first proposed the idea of a Drone Alliance in last year's State of the Union address as part of a series of announcements aimed at countering drone incursions into the airspace of EU member states.

A Commission representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that EU Commissioner for Defence Andrius Kubilius would attend the meeting on 11 September.

Nineteen drone manufacturers from EU countries will join the meeting, including ORQA, Indra Group, Fincantieri, WB Electronics/WB Group, Destinus, Delair, RSI Europe, TERMA A/S and Quantum Systems on the EU side.

The Ukrainian companies taking part will include Skyfall Industries, Greentech Harvest, Tencore, Deviro, Vyriy Industry, the Research and Production Company ATHLON AVIA, TAF Industries, UFORCE and F-Drones.

According to sources, the meeting will focus primarily on assessing the current state of affairs in order to establish a timetable for action and discuss initial measures.

Simónas Šatūnas, Kubilius's chief of staff, said, "We're trying to learn from them a lot, how the ecosystem functions, how the government and drone industries function together."

Background:

• In July, the EU and Ukraine agreed on the Drone Deal, which aims to "provide a single, coordinated framework for cooperation between the EU and Ukraine to facilitate, coordinate and support" the full implementation of drone agreements that Kyiv has signed with several EU capitals.
• A few days ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was finalising a Drone Deal agreement with Germany.
• Before that, such an agreement was signed with Norway.

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