Drone rules by country
What you have to do before you fly a drone abroad, what the weight of your drone changes, and where you may not fly. The rules come from each country's aviation authority.
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Your drone
250 g is the usual dividing line, but check the weight printed on the drone itself — and remember that a camera or a battery counts towards the weight in some countries.
What applies
All EU member states and the EEA states that adopt the same drone rules
One set of rules across the bloc, split by how heavy the drone is and how close you are to people: C0 up to 250 g, C1 up to 900 g, C2 up to 4 kg, C3 and C4 up to 25 kg.
Before you fly
- Enter the weight of the drone to see what applies.
Where you may not fly
- No flight over assemblies of people in any subcategory.
- A2: at least 30 m from uninvolved people, reducible to 5 m with the low-speed function on.
- A3: at least 150 m from uninvolved people and from urban areas.
Where people trip up
- A drone in the A2 subcategory keeps the 150 m rule in urban areas, because A2 is a subset of A3.
- A privately built drone means one you built yourself for your own use, not one assembled from a kit.
- The class label matters: what counts is the C0 to C4 label on the drone, not just its weight.
Scope The open category, which covers most leisure flying and low-risk commercial work.
“C0 (under 250 g) / C1 (under 900 g) / C2 (under 4 kg) / C3 (under 25 kg) / C4 (under 25 kg) / Maintain flight altitude below 120m above ground level. / Maintain a horizontal distance of 30 m from uninvolved people (can be reduced to 5 m if the low-speed function is activated) / Maintain a horizontal distance of 150 m from uninvolved people and urban areas. / Remote pilot minimum age 16*, no minimum age if drone is a toy”
EASA: open category, low risk, civil drones — https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/domains/drones-air-mobility/operating-drone/open-category-low-risk-civil-drones
Checked 2026-10-23
Go deeper
Drone law changes, and every country adds rules of its own on top of the national ones. Check the aviation authority's own page, and its app, on the day you fly — the link above is the authority, not this page.