EU Rejects Standardized UFO Reporting Category

The European Commission has rejected repeated calls for a standardized UFO reporting category across European aviation, even as internal documents reviewed by Euronews show the Commission has been quietly monitoring UFOs since at least 2023. A letter from the Commission’s defence department, tied to sky and space observations over Malaysia, states that the EU is improving its ability to detect and identify unknown objects as its technology advances, and adds that it needs to get even better. The public was never told this monitoring effort was underway before this report.

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The European Aviation Safety Agency, known as EASA, has repeatedly turned down requests from lawmakers and pilot advocates to create a dedicated UFO category within existing aviation safety systems, according to Euronews. EASA has stated that pilots can already report anything they consider a safety risk under current categories, and that it has not found evidence a dedicated office is required. Joachim Deckers, who leads the UAP Coalition Netherlands, told Euronews that roughly 90% of pilot sightings across Europe go unreported as a result of that gap, leaving flight crews to misclassify or stay silent about encounters that would otherwise be logged.

The case behind the Commission’s internal letter traces back to a family team of amateur astronomers in Malaysia, according to Euronews. The family, recognized internationally for documenting lunar surface activity in 2020, sent the Commission thirty seven images of sky and space anomalies in October 2022, along with a direct question to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about their origin. The family told the Commission the objects appeared near aircraft and near military and nuclear sites, and said they had also detected unusual signals through local Wi-Fi frequencies. Reference to the Commission’s response shows it said it had no authority over Malaysian airspace, but would propose that member states expand their ability to detect objects in the space environment around Earth. The family also contacted NASA, the Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Malaysia’s science ministry, and the Canadian government. All declined to engage.

Euronews also gathered testimony from two European airline pilots whose accounts underscore the reporting gap EASA continues to deny exists. Rob Akkermans, a Dutch pilot with thirty five years of experience, described a 2023 flight where he and five crew members watched lights flare and maneuver over more than two hours before vanishing at high speed. Christian van Heijst, a Boeing 747 captain, described tracking a stationary object at 41,000 feet for roughly an hour during a 2010 flight, with both Madrid air traffic control and military air traffic control confirming no known aircraft or activity in that airspace at the time.

The reporting gap in Europe stands in contrast to growing public pressure in the United States. According to a CBS News and YouGov poll of 2,023 American adults conducted June 2 — June 4, 17% of respondents said they have personally seen something they believe was a UFO, with men reporting sightings at a higher rate than women. 84% of respondents, across party lines, said they believe the government knows more about UAPs than it has shared. That trust gap follows a chain of events beginning with Barack Obama’s viral podcast comments on aliens in February, which preceded Donald Trump’s directive to declassify UAP records and the first release under the PURSUE program on May 8.

Euronews also documented a pattern connecting UFO sightings to nuclear infrastructure across three countries, including France’s La Hague reprocessing plant, the UK’s Rendlesham Forest case, and the 1967 Malmstrom Air Force Base case in Montana. France remains the only EU country with a dedicated UFO investigation body, GEIPAN, while the European Commission maintains that UAP monitoring remains a member state responsibility, even as its own defence department documents confirm a coordinated detection effort has been running since at least 2023.

Sources

CBS News. (2026, June 2–4). CBS News poll [Poll report]. https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/cbsnews_20260604_1.pdf

McIntyre, I. (2022, June 25). It’s out there: Penangite taken with unidentified aerial phenomena. The Vibes. https://www.thevibes.com/articles/lifestyles/64295/its-out-there

Pacheco, M. (2026, August 17). Exclusive: Brussels keen to monitor UFOs under the radar. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/17/exclusive-brussels-keen-to-monitor-ufos-under-the-radar