Eurospace represents the space industry at a European level. In a document published on Monday, 19 June, the organisation presented its policy recommendations to strengthen European space diplomacy.
Faced with an increasingly competitive space market characterised by strong protectionism, the need to get genuine European space diplomacy up and running has become a priority for the European institutions and member states (see EUROPE 11724).
In this connection, Europsace is proposing a strategy based on four different areas: a specific European Commission institutional approach for the space sector; greater use of research and development programs to attain the diplomacy objectives in this domain; use of European development policy; introduction of European instruments to support the internationalisation of European businesses in this sector.
With regard to the organisation of the work by the institutions, Eurospace is proposing to increase the work undertaken between the different European Commission services (DG TRADE, DG DEVCO, DG CONNECT, EAC) under the auspices of the internal market services (DG GROW). In this context, the organisation is encouraging systematic cooperation with local and regional authorities at European level and throughout the world. This request can also be located in an own initiative report adopted on Wednesday 21 June at the European Parliament (see other article). In this perspective, the organisation is proposing to regularly launch awareness campaigns among the European delegations about European space programmes.
On the issue of research and development, Eurospace is proposing to improve the use of the Horizon 2020 framework programme and make it more flexible, by allowing the space industry to make contact with potential government clients earlier on.
Eurospace believes that DG DEVCO should be fully involved in the development of European economic diplomacy, particularly by way of training Space sector professionals. In other areas, the organisation is suggesting that the participation of non-EU countries in European infrastructure is facilitated (e.g. by having direct access to Copernicus data). In this regard, it is proposing a substantial reinforcement of the relations between DG DEVCO and DG GROW.
Finally, as part of the trade agreements, Eurospace is proposing that the European Commission revise it guidelines governing the elaboration of trade agreements, in an effort to take into account the specificities of the space sector, a sector that is explicitly excluded from the WTO’s scope. It is also possible that a reflection exercise could be launched in partnership with the EIB in an effort to support the globalisation of businesses working in this field. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)