EU officials pitch EU space law as a competitiveness driver

4 months ago 28

In a bid to cast the upcoming EU space law in a favourable light, Commission officials pitched it as a competitiveness driver for the continent’s industry during the European Space Forum in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday (24-25 June).

The officials tried their best to quench the industry’s thirst for details on the space law, which has been two years in the making, with a draft the Commission has now postponed twice.

“Competitiveness is really at the heart of what we are doing [in the law],” the head of unit for innovation at the Commission’s directorate for space, Guillaume de la Brosse, told a panel discussion on Monday.

Previously, the Commission has been largely quiet about what the space law will include. The aim is safety, particularly around space debris; resilience, by laying down risk management and cybersecurity standards; as well as the sustainability of the industry.

It is still not known when the Commission will table the EU space law. Timo Pesonen, director general for defence industry and space, said it should be tabled “early by the next Commission,” while de la Brosse said he hoped for a presentation within the “first hundreds days” of the new Commission.

Pesonen said that by merging the EU space industry into the single market and increasing spending on research and development, Europe can become a space power.

He emphasised the proportionality factor of the upcoming proposal: “We will not treat startups and newcomers in the same way as we will deal with the big firms.”

De la Brosse added that the new rules will be “carefully calibrated” to company sizes and maturity levels.

The rules should also apply extraterritorially, to foreign companies doing business in the EU, so as not to hamper European innovation on the global stage, de la Brosse said.

EU politicians have promised a proposal for the EU space law to harmonise rules at the EU level and address fragmentation of the industry.

Currently, 11 EU countries have their own national space laws, each with their specific scope, sophistication, and requirements, and the number could increase as more are mulling their own national laws, said de la Brosse.

“We want a single market for space,” he stated, explaining that the Commission proposal will include best practices from current national laws. But he warned that the EU space law entails a fundamental mindset shift.

According to him, this is first time the EU will work on a binding legislation that will not look at space in silos as it did previously with satellites constellations, but rather lay down “horizontal rules” across borders.

Talking about investments in EU’s space industry, the Commission’s space policy officer Fabio Vitobello recognised on Monday there was some “basic education” to be made towards investors, so that they can better understand the business models of space companies.

Foreign investments into EU companies will still be screened for state third-country influence, along the provisions of the Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regulation, but this process will not hamper foreign investment in the space industry, Vitobello said.