EU Drone Rules Are Changing: Registration at 100g, Remote ID for Almost Everything - What EASA's 2026 Opinion Means for You

Europe is preparing the biggest overhaul of its drone rules since the 2019 regulation came into force. EASA Opinion No 06/2026, published on 18 September 2026, proposes lowering the operator registration threshold from 250 grams to 100 grams and extending Remote ID to almost every drone that can legally fly in the open category. The proposal is now circulating through national consultations across the EU and EEA, and it is driven from the top: the European Commission's drone and counter-drone security action plan of February 2026, drafted after the wave of drone disruptions that closed or disrupted airports in Copenhagen, Munich, Oslo and Brussels in late 2025.

Nothing is law yet — the current 250-gram threshold and today's class requirements still apply. But the direction is clear, and the consultation window is short. Here is what the opinion actually says, who it will affect, and what you can sensibly do right now.

What EASA proposes

Remote ID becomes the real story

The registration change gets the headlines, but Remote ID touches more pilots. Direct Remote ID is a local radio broadcast — position, serial number and the operator's registration number — sent straight from the drone, without mobile network or internet. EASA deliberately rejected network-based identification: the broadcast must work everywhere, including where your phone has no signal.

From 100 grams up, every drone in the open category would have to broadcast. That captures the entire mini-drone class that today sits quietly under the C0 exemption: aircraft in the 249-gram range that were engineered specifically to stay under old thresholds. The industry will need to add broadcast modules to aircraft that never carried them, and that is where the grandfathering rules matter.

The grandfathering compromise

EASA proposes transition arrangements so the fleet already in circulation is not rendered illegal overnight:

• Drones already sold, up to 900 g: in most cases can continue flying without retrofitted Remote ID.
• Legacy drones above 900 g: may need an external Remote ID unit installed within four years after the rules take effect.
• Existing drones: not covered by the new electronic take-off check — that requirement applies to newly developed aircraft.
• Model flying clubs: no automatic exemption, but member states may define the Remote ID status of club operations in the club authorisation itself.

What EASA dropped

Two ideas from earlier drafts did not survive. Extending geo-awareness warnings to every drone above 100 grams was scrapped — regulators judged the GNSS dependency and the burden on model flyers disproportionate, and the basic duty to check your zones before flight stands. And there is no new standalone "critical infrastructure" category in the operations regulation: sensitive sites will keep being protected through UAS geographical zones under Article 15, now with clearer publication duties and a necessity-and-proportionality test for safety, privacy and environmental zones.

Timeline: what happens when

The opinion is a proposal, not law. Member states are running national consultations now — Norway's Civil Aviation Authority has the file open with a 30 November 2026 deadline (case 26/10745), and other civil aviation authorities across the EU are processing the same package. The European Commission is expected to adopt the amending regulations during 2027. After adoption, the text enters the EEA agreement for countries like Norway and Iceland, and only then lands in national law. No entry-into-force date has been fixed anywhere yet.

Practical translation: the rules as they stand today are the rules you must follow today. Register at 250 g or with a camera, fly your C-class drone with the Remote ID it already has, and check geo-zones before every flight.

What this means for you

If you fly a sub-250 g mini drone

You are probably already registered — camera-equipped aircraft have been inside the registration net for years, regardless of weight. The real change for you is Remote ID: your aircraft does not broadcast today, and under the proposal new ones would. Aircraft you already own are protected by the grandfathering clause, so no retrofit and no grounded mini. When you eventually replace it, expect the broadcast to be built in.

If you fly 100–249 g camera-less aircraft or FPV builds

This is the group that genuinely crosses a new line: registration would become mandatory at 100 g regardless of sensors. Conversely, the opinion removes the camera-based registration duty for aircraft under 100 g, simplifying the rule into a single weight test. Custom-built aircraft get no carve-out from the broadcast requirement in the open category — plan your build accordingly.

If you are already a registered commercial operator

Registration stays per-operator, not per-drone: you will not have to register each aircraft again. Expect identity verification to become part of the flow, and watch the four-year retrofit window if any of your aircraft above 900 g predate the new rules. Your operational paperwork — insurance, authorisations, maintenance logs — is unchanged by this opinion.

What you can do now

• Do not re-register or buy hardware based on rumours. Nothing has changed legally, and retrofit rules protect existing aircraft.
• Respond to your national consultation if you fly professionally. The window runs until late November 2026 in several countries, and the retrofit and club-exemption details are exactly the parts EASA invites input on.
• Audit your fleet against the 100 g line. Know which aircraft would become registration- and Remote ID-subject, and which are grandfathered.
• Check geo-zones before every flight. That duty exists today and the enforcement mood behind this proposal is not friendly to "I didn't know".

The direction of travel is unmistakable: Europe wants every meaningful drone identifiable, and every operator verifiable. The pilots who will feel the least disruption are the ones whose documentation is already in order. Dronable keeps your flight logs, preflight checklists and zone checks in one operational record — the kind of paper trail that makes rule changes a footnote instead of a fire drill.

Sources

• EASA — Opinion No 06/2026, regular update of Regulations (EU) 2019/947 and (EU) 2019/945
• Luftfartstilsynet (Norway) — national consultation of EASA Opinion 06/2026
• DroneMag — Nye EU-regler kan gi registreringsplikt og Remote ID for droner fra 100 gram