The EU and ESA aim to increase the competitiveness of the European space sector

WASHINGTON — European officials have passed a resolution aimed at making Europe’s space industry more competitive, but industry members say the measure falls far short.

At the end of the Space Council meeting on May 23 in Brussels, members of the European Space Agency and the European Union adopted a resolution on strengthening Europe’s competitiveness in space, including support for companies operating in the industry.

The resolution does not include any significant new initiatives regarding the competitiveness of the space industry, but instead highlights and highlights ongoing efforts. This includes efforts such as the EU’s Cassini program to stimulate investment in space enterprises and increased use of service procurement.

“Our conclusions reiterate the importance of the space program for Europe’s strategic policies and activities and for strengthening the competitiveness and resilience of our space industry,” said Thomas Dermine, Federal Secretary of State for Research in Belgium, which holds the current EU presidency, at the conference. post-meeting briefing. “They call for public and private investment to support innovation and the crucial role of SMEs”, i.e. small and medium-sized enterprises.

“The European space sector is already a world leader. To ensure this remains the case, the EU and ESA, as well as the responsible ministers of the member states, are committed to increasing the innovation and competitiveness of the European space sector,” said Anna Christmann, German Federal Coordination for Aviation and Space and Chair of the ESA Ministerial Council.

As an example, she cited ESA’s commercial payload program, under which Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company awarded initial exploration contracts to Thales Alenia Space on May 22, just over six months after ESA announced the formal launch of the program. “I think this is the pace we need to see more and more in Europe when it comes to competitiveness.”

However, the resolution does not meet the expectations of some representatives of the European space industry. “It is time for decisive action to equip Europe with the necessary tools to emerge as a true ‘space power’, commensurate with its projected global stature,” Eurospace, the European space industry group, said in a statement after the council meeting.

Eurospace cited several concerns, such as the low volume of European institutional demand for space services, particularly compared to the United States and China, as well as reduced demand from traditional commercial markets served by European companies. “In parallel,” he added, “SpaceX is now completely disrupting the satellite industry after helping to disrupt the launch services market.”

The organization called for a “coherent, pan-European industrial strategy for space” that would cover issues such as space industry supply chains in Europe and exploiting “complementarities between defense and civil capabilities to develop new technologies for both commercial and defense needs. “

European said the strategy should also include better coordination between the EU, ESA and their member states, and called on them to “promote European standards and principles of conduct, in particular on sustainable development and environmental mitigation.”

The abyss of cosmic law

The Space Council briefing also confirmed that the proposed EU space law, due to be published early this year, is unlikely to be formally introduced until after the June European Parliament elections. In April, their EU commissioner for space, Ichry Breton, told a parliamentary committee that the proposed law was “not yet mature” and that work on it would resume later this summer.

“We have heard from member states that there is a strong appetite for the Commission to come forward with a proposal for an EU-wide space law,” said Timo Pesonen, head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defense Industry and Space, during a briefing. “We are working hard to make this proposal available in the coming weeks.”

The Commission has not published a draft law, although the proposed regulations are expected to take into account the desire to create a single EU space market and introduce principles of sustainable space development.

“We wanted to take the time to make sure that what we are preparing meets, first of all, the aspirations and ambitions of the industry and our member countries, the expectations of citizens, and then the legal basis will be solid enough to last for many years,” said Pesonen.

Although Belgium has made EU space law a priority for its six-month EU presidency, Dermine said he was not surprised it had been delayed.

“Of course, it would be great if we could develop a final version of space law, but it is definitely better to have a more, I would say more important and adapted to the industry and all experts, version than to have a half-baked version that will arrive during this presidency,” he said.

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