The EU could introduce tough new restrictions on drone ownership

The EU has been urged to start getting serious about drone ownership, and the House of Lords EU Committee has suggested that it starts by creating a register of everyone who owns a drone in Europe.

The BBC reports that new measures are being considered to control how drones are sold, owned and flown within Europe.

One of the proposals is that anyone who owns a drone would have to register it online, so that it's possible to monitor what drones are being flown in Europe.

There are a group of proposals made in the report from the House of Lords in the UK. It wants to increase the use of geo-fencing, which is where drones are prevented from flying in certain areas using GPS and software on the device.

The manufacturer of the drone that crashed near the White House in January quickly rolled out geofencing following the incident. The software update stopped its drones from being able to fly in Washington DC. Tougher EU regulation would likely mean that drones would be unable to fly near airports and nuclear power stations, among other locations.

Police could also get more training on drones, if the House of Lords EU Committee's proposal is accepted. It wants law enforcement to be properly trained in how to deal with drones. Amongst the reports other proposals are plans for a kite mark that indicates whether drones are safe to fly, and better information on what insurance is needed for commercial drone flights.

Tougher EU regulations on drone flights could be a problem for Amazon, which has been testing its drone delivery program in Cambridge after the US proved to be too restrictive.