IndustriALL, the industrial workers' union, is calling for a clear and firm commitment from EU policy makers to support the European space sector, particularly with regard to launchers, in a policy paper published on Thursday 16 May.
For the trade union organisation, competition from China, Russia and the United States (but also gradually from Brazil and Japan) is increasingly threatening the European space sector and, in the long term, the EU's independence to access space. However, the space sector of these three major non-Member States is massively supported by the State, which also keeps the national market "captive" and closed to international competition. This is not the case for the European sector, which is dependent on commercial orders and exposed to international competitors on the European market.
IndustriALL therefore calls for a strong institutional commitment to European launchers and the establishment of a reciprocity mechanism with non-Member States to ensure fair competition with non-Member States. The organisation urges legislators to simplify the European legal framework, support SMEs and invest more in R&D, including military activities. In addition, IndustriALL is calling for the end of ArianeGroup's restructuring programme, which threatens to cut around 2,300 jobs.
The document, which is very similar in its requests to that of the space industry (see EUROPE 12256/20), is published a few days before the holding of a Competitiveness Council on space on 28 May, where conclusions should be adopted emphasising the independence of the EU's access to space (see EUROPE 12252/9).
To consult the document: https://bit.ly/2YCxDuG. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)