The space strategy for Europe is making headway within the European Commission and should, in all likelihood, be presented on 26 October, according to a number of sources contacted on Monday 26 September. The content of the strategy has recently been detailed by Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic.
The commissioner, deeply committed to space policy alongside the internal market and industry commissioner, spoke about the strategy at a meeting of national ministers in the European Space Agency (ESA) earlier this month, without, however, announcing anything new from what was already known (see EUROPE 11551).
He highlighted the three main objectives of the strategy: to maximise the benefits from space activities, to enhance the competitiveness of the European sector in order to win a share of the global market, and to make a contribution to the EU’s independence and ability to act in the space domain. In order to achieve these, the commissioner argued, space policy must adopt a transversal and trans-sectoral approach and he stressed that it must be linked to security and defence issues – a request also made by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11568) – and that there should be better articulation of the activities of the Commission and ESA. On this latter point, the Commission and ESA are expected to adopt a joint statement, probably between 25 and 27 October, according to a source close to the matter.
The competitiveness of the space industry is, in a way, the be-all and end-all of the strategy, with the European industry having to face the surge from across the Atlantic of a very aggressive private sector, supported by massive state aid and strong protectionism (see EUROPE 11569). Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska has, indeed, broached the “New Space” issue (a term used to describe the emergence of the private space industry) when she was in California last week where, on Friday 23 September, she met the chief executive of Blue Origin, a private US company working in low-cost access to space services.
Access to space, alongside the use of space data, is, as it happens, one of the key issues of the strategy. ESA gave the green light on Tuesday 13 September to the development programme for the Ariane 6 launcher (see EUROPE 11624). The Commission could be a major customer of the new launcher which could be available by 2020, Sefcovic is said to have told ministers, without committing himself further. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)