Kiri

Dear UAS TeB Members,

I hope you had a good start in 2026!

I would like to inform you that EASA has officially released the Repository, now to be referred to as “Trusted Repository for Aviation Certificates Europe – TRACE”, for 4 UAS related information objects which are:

• Registration of UAS operator

• UAS Operational Declaration

• Operational Authorisation for UAS operators

• Light UAS operator certificate

It is now up to the Member States to contact EASA for the onboarding process. Member States are facing a legal deadline of 1 January 2027 to include the information into TRACE.

Please carefully read the email below for the onboarding process and contact your respective MAB member to obtain the necessary information.

Kind regards

Giuseppe

Dear Repository Steering Committee members,

The European Union has built an efficient yet safe aviation system in which stakeholders profit from the EU single market. We do not only trust each other, we also support each other in our certification, oversight and enforcement tasks. Through Article 74 of the Basic Regulation, the Agency has been given the task to “establish and maintain” a repository of information to support the effective cooperation.

The project for this repository, now rebranded to “Trusted Repository for Aviation Certificates Europe – TRACE”, started in 2020 and passed its first milestone in October 2024 with the publication of the implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2117.

Today we have reached another milestone: I am happy to announce the first release of TRACE, which has been prepared for the first 4 information objects related to the UAS domain:

• Registration of UAS operator

• UAS Operational Declaration

• Operational Authorisation for UAS operators

• Light UAS operator certificate

The deadlines for the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) to send the data for the above-mentioned certificates is 1 January 2027. You are kindly invited to contact EASA to get connected (onboarded) to TRACE for that purpose. The onboarding process can be summarised as follows:

• The NCA onboards the “Community Test environment”; this environment fully replicates the “production” environment and can be used to test and prove that the NCA is able to send their data though a machine-to-machine connection

• Once the NCA has proven that they are able to push the data in the format agreed with the “Repository Steering Committee”, that NCA will be onboarded to the Production environment. From that moment onwards, the NCA can send (copies of) their data to TRACE

The access by authorised staff members to TRACE is being arranged through a separate process; the “account managers” that you have nominated earlier will be contacted in 2026 to arrange the access.

The documentation necessary for a successful onboarding and transmission of data is attached. The latest version is also available in the documents library of Repository Steering Committee’s Workspace.

To get onboarded to TRACE community test environment , I kindly ask you to contact us at [email protected]. Subsequently, we will offer you individual and joint sessions to explain the onboarding process and get you connected. Please do not wait too long: firstly, you are facing the deadline to send your data to TRACE and secondly, the onboarding queue will become longer during the year.

Thank you for your support and partnership this year. Wishing you a restful holiday and a prosperous 2026!

Best regards,

Christopher

Christopher Holgate-Romanov

Head of Department - Strategy and Better Regulation

European Union Aviation Safety Agency