Call for Founding Members of the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance

Recent repeated violations of the airspace of EU Member States have shown the urgency of creating a flexible, agile and state of the art European capacity to counter unmanned aerial vehicles. 

Drones and counter-drones are one of the capability priority areas identified and agreed by Member States. The Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 has underlined the need to address this capability as a matter of priority considering the level of threats, and in a coordinated manner so that it would benefit the security of the EU. Efforts towards the reinforcement of the European drone and counter-drone capability would frame the European Drone Defence Initiative as proposed in the Defence Readiness Roadmap.

While Member States have already started work on drones and counter-drones within a dedicated capability coalition, the European Commission is committed to intensify its support to Member States’ efforts including through facilitating the dialogue and engagement with industry and reinforce the cooperation with Ukraine. 

A stronger European drone and anti-drone capacity should build on the lessons learned from Ukraine about the key value of creating innovative drone and counter-drone ecosystems, linking R&D with production, and relying on scalable production capacity and continuous technological development. 

This is why the European Commission, in close cooperation with Ukraine, is launching the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance. 

The Alliance will be an industry-led initiative that will bring together system manufacturers and innovators, including startups and scaleups, as well as end-users from the EU, EEA EFTA States and Ukraine, with the intention to contribute to ongoing European efforts to build a comprehensive drone and counter-drone capability. It is expected to closely interact with the Member State-led Priority Capability Coalition, focusing on drones and counter-drone systems, thereby contributing to the delivery of concrete capabilities. 

To achieve these goals, we are seeking eligible applicants who are legal entities with demonstrated experience and expertise in the EU and/or Ukrainian defence drone and counter-drone ecosystem, as well as a commitment to active participation in the Alliance.

The objective of this first call is to select the founding members of the Alliance, who will form its first Board that will be able to shape its activities and priorities. 

The Commission, in close cooperation with the Ukraine will support and facilitate the establishment and the work of the Drone Alliance. 

Application form