In the final provisional version of the conclusions documents for the Council of the EU on a space strategy for Europe seen by this newsletter on Friday 17 March, the member states highlight the need to develop the security and defence aspect with regard to border control and maritime surveillance.
In the document, whose first drafting was described by this newsletter in February (see EUROPE 11724), the member states underscore the need to reflect on extra services in order to meet emerging needs in specific priority areas. They take note of new domains identified by the European Commission but (and this is new in this version of the document) they make two areas very explicit, namely climate change, particularly surveillance of CO2 and greenhouse gases; and security and defence to improve the EU’s capabilities and respond to changing challenges relating to border control and maritime surveillance with the flagship EU programmes of Copernicus and Galileo/Egnos.
The Commission seems to have anticipated this new demand from the member states – as recently reported by this newsletter, for Copernicus (see EUROPE 11741) and Galileo (see EUROPE 11655), -which were until recently reluctant to consider ‘slippage’ of space policy from civilian to security use. This change of position is explained by the refugee crisis that has been causing upsets in the European Union for the past few years.
European rocket-launchers explicitly mentioned. Another novelty is that the member states invite the European Commission as the ‘prime institutional customer’ to set up a mechanism bringing together the demand of the EU’s institutional clients in order to ensure a competitive, independent and reliable European launch service. Above all, the document puts on paper for the first time use of the Ariane and Vega launchers – and future versions – an amendment that will be welcomed by Arianespace, which has long been calling for the establishment of a ‘European preference.’
The next Multiannual Financial Framework. The member states also mention for the first time, but in a very guarded manner, the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework. They invite the Commission to provide a detailed roadmap for implementation of the strategy without prejudging future talks on the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework. The European Commission is hoping the EU budget for space will be increased for the next budget period.
The next working group on space will meet on Monday 20 March. The conclusions document is due to be adopted by the Competitiveness Council on space on Tuesday 30 May. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)