The European Union must do more to support its space sector and its know-how in the face of very aggressive and partly unfair international competition. This is essentially what Eurospace, which represents major players in the European space industry, is calling for in its new manifesto published on Thursday 16 May.
Noting that the space sector in the United States, China and Russia is heavily supported by public institutional orders, but also that the domestic markets of these countries remain mainly "captive", the organisation calls for a reflection on the principle of establishing a real "European preference".
In addition, the organisation asks that, in the event that institutional markets become open to non-European players, understandably the principle of reciprocity is applied, but also the principle of fair competition. In addition, the organization would like more funds in the context of the next Horizon Europe framework programme.
Because, according to Eurospace, the European space sector does not play on equal terms with its competitors on the international scene. The sector does not benefit from massive public orders as in the United States, due to the militarization of space, and is much more heavily dependent on commercial orders (72% of European production was dedicated to commercial orders between 2014 and 2020).
"This situation of extreme exposure of our industry to the competition on open markets makes the institutional support to promote the competitiveness of the sector, through dedicated measures of industrial policy, even more crucial, in line with article 189 of the Lisbon Treaty", the authors of the text stress.
Since the end of 2016, the European Commission has been committed to aggregating its orders in the space sector in order to give greater financial visibility to the European space sector, particularly in the launcher sector (see EUROPE 11655/9). However, the Commission's role may have seemed ambiguous, as it maintains a certain proximity with American actors in the space sector (see EUROPE 12100/17).
To view the manifesto: https://bit.ly/2JKfC9i. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)