The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, explained on Tuesday 21 January that space is "a strategic issue for the EU and should be treated as such".
In a speech to the 12th ‘European Space Conference’ in Brussels, Mr Borrell said that "the rising geopolitical tensions we see on Earth are being prolonged and projected into space". In particular, he recalled that space was increasingly congested, contested and competitive.
Thus "we are witnessing unilateral movements and the risk of increasing militarisation or arms races in outer space", he warned, recalling that the legal regime and normative framework for outer space is only partially developed and that the principle of peaceful uses of outer space is being eroded.
For his part, the Belgian Defence Minister, Philippe Goffin, called for the EU to remain "lucid and determined" in the face of the threats. "We have to protect our sovereignty, we have to protect the peaceful use of space, and that requires the means to do so. You can't be naive and be late. Nobody wants star wars, but nobody wants Europe to be a space colony", added the chair of the European Parliament’s Security and Defence Subcommittee, Nathalie Loiseau.
Mr Borrell, in his capacity as "High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy", therefore promised that he would do his utmost to contribute to the development of a coherent EU approach in the field of space. A promise that should delight Mrs Loiseau, who has called for a white paper on defence "that takes into account the challenges of the spatial dimension".
And to be up to the challenge, we must also have the financial means to do so. Mr Goffin called for the future Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 to "give the EU the means to realise its ambitions in defence and space". The European Defence Fund is highlighted in particular. Jean-Pierre Serra, Vice-President for Defence and Security at Airbus Defence and Space, stressed that the EDF, which the Commission would like to see allocated 13 billion euros, was "important in order to be able to put in place a number of options in a dual framework that will make it possible, with clear programmatic commitments, to build what Europe needs for its strategic autonomy".
For his part, the Director General of the Commission's newly created DG DEFIS, Timo Pesonen, hoped that the budget allocated to space in the MFF would approach or even exceed the initial Commission proposal of 16 billion euros, reduced to 12.7 billion euros in the Finnish proposal (see EUROPE 12383/11). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)