EU Commission moves to tighten monitoring of unidentified aerial phenomena — The Debate

Brussels signals a push for better detection and reporting of UAPs across member states, citing safety and security concerns.

The European Commission has signalled its intention to improve surveillance of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) as part of a broader safety drive.

"We are getting better at seeing it (UAPs) and better at identifying it as our technological capacities improve, but we need to get even better," a recent letter from the Commission read, indicating that the EU executive is actively monitoring the phenomenon beyond what has been publicly disclosed.

Formerly known as unidentified flying objects, the term UAP was introduced by the U.S. Department of Defence in August 2020 when Washington set up a UAP Task Force to investigate unexplained incidents in restricted airspace.

The issue gained seriousness after a 2017 report revealed that the U.S. Navy had released footage of UAPs captured during military flights.

A Malaysian family duo sent 37 images of sky and space footage, including alleged UAPs, to the Commission and asked President Ursula von der Leyen about their origins.

They argued that "all governments simply have no opinions" on these phenomena and noted that the objects appear to fly "very near to aircraft and important targets, such as military and nuclear facilities".

"We have also detected various signals from up above through the local networks Wi‑Fi frequency," the Malaysian duo wrote.

Since the sightings were over Malaysia, the Commission said it had no authority to investigate directly, but it would propose to the 27 member states to "increase its ability to detect objects in the space environment around the Earth".

This proposal is intended to help identify both UAPs and the growing amount of space debris that threatens satellite operations.

A unified reporting system would complement the EU's Single European Sky initiative, which seeks to harmonise air traffic management across the bloc. With increasing drone incursions over European airspace, member states are keen to ensure any anomalous objects are logged consistently.

The Malaysian amateurs also reached out to NASA, the director general of the Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Abdul Rahim Harun, the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation and the Canadian Defence Ministry, but received no substantive response.

Former Canadian MP Larry Maguire encouraged the pair, saying that as more information is collected, public awareness of the issue will grow.

In the EU, discussions about UAPs remain limited and often carry a stigma, contrasting with the United States, which has released several confidential files and set up a UAP Science Council chaired by Harvard physicist Avi Loeb.

France operates the only state‑funded UAP monitoring centre in the EU, the Study Group and Information on Non‑Identified Aerospace Phenomena, known as GEIPAN. Since its creation in 1977, GEIPAN has examined over 3,300 cases, classifying 106 as unexplained after thorough analysis.

European lawmakers have repeatedly raised flight‑safety concerns, noting that pilot sightings of UAPs are on the rise. In 2025 and 2026, German MEP Fabio De Masi asked the Commission to update aviation reporting systems with a dedicated UAP category to improve data consistency and safety standards.

Pilots argue that the lack of standardised reporting hampers risk mitigation, as sudden appearances of unknown objects could affect situational awareness or trigger emergency manoeuvres.

One Dutch pilot described a series of lights near Cyprus that behaved like a chase, while another sighting over the Netherlands involved a large, stationary object at 41,000 feet that air traffic control could not account for.

These accounts underscore the view that unidentified objects in European airspace are a safety issue rather than a matter of science‑fiction speculation.

Joachim Dekkers, founder of the UAP Coalition Netherlands, warned that stigma leads to under‑reporting, with an estimated 90 % of pilot sightings never reaching authorities.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) says it already has a framework for reporting any occurrence that may impact aviation safety, including UAPs, but it has not identified evidence of a systemic safety threat.

Critics suggest this may reflect a reporting gap rather than an absence of incidents, noting that without a central database, national reports remain fragmented.

UAPs have also been reported near nuclear facilities, a concern echoed by past French studies linking sightings to proximity to atomic sites such as the La Hague reprocessing plant.

While the EU pushes member states to increase defence spending and cooperate on security, it maintains that UAPs remain a national responsibility, to be handled according to each country's security priorities.

Advocates urge the Commission, Parliament and EASA to formally update aviation safety frameworks with a standardised UAP reporting category, ending the policy of ignoring or misclassifying data.