BRUSSELS, 13 Feb. - (ANA) - The European Commission announced its new drone action plan to counter malicious drones on Wednesday, with new measures to detect malicious flyers with 5G, protect critical infrastructure, and respond to threats. 

 

Drone attacks and interference against civilian structures are an increasing security concern for the EU. The continent has experienced recent high-profile drone buzzings or disruptions at sites such as international airports and Nato airspace incursions from Russian drones.

 

“The action plan is all about enhancing our preparedness, boosting our detection capacities as well as stepping up our collective responses and strengthening our defence readiness,” said Henna Virkkunen, commission vice president for tech and security.

 

An important aspect of the plan discusses working with member states to increase investment, procurement, and development of Europe’s own drone capabilities, such as supporting drone start-ups, and establishing an industry forum to discuss scale-up.

 

A focus on European markets is in line with recent other proposals from the commission — for example, the Digital Networks Act — as the bloc tries to reduce its technological and security dependancies on third countries.

 

Another key component is various voluntary initiatives to assess and test the vulnerabilities of the bloc’s critical infrastructure, including annual EU-wide drone security exercises to test cross-border response capabilities.

 

 

 

 

This new proposal, however, makes no mention of a “drone wall,” a defence idea proposed by the commission in October last year.

 

“We have changed the word drone wall more towards drone initiative,” explained Virkkunen.

 

Included in the initiative, by the end of 2026, is a proposed “drone security package” that will tighten current rules on drone registration and identification in the EU, hoping to increase clarity for law enforcement on whether a drone poses a threat or is for legitimate use. 

 

This new law would be an update to the original EU drone regulation passed in 2019, which established the current consumer drone registration requirements.  

 

Then, by early 2027, the executive hopes to launch the “EU counter-drone centre of excellence,” which will test and standardise EU counter-drone measures.

 

Another 2027 goal is to improve geofencing requirements — no-fly zones — around critical structures.

 

To improve detection, the commission will also ask interested member states to test using 5G networks for drone-detection and to integrate AI into early alert mechanisms.

 

The EU currently has 351,600 5G base stations, which could be used to see if a drone connected to the network, and (if they are next-generation antennas), they could be adapted into a radar-like instrument.

 

Then when a threat is identified, the commission will discuss with member states about establishing rapid counter-drone emergency teams to be deployed to manage the threat.

 

The executive also highlighted cooperation with Nato and Ukraine in the new action plan.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/13 February 2026  - - -