Negotiations on the EU space programme regulation, according to our information from Wednesday 30 September, are reportedly stalled.
At the EU Council working group meeting on 28 September, the German EU Council Presidency was unable to provide a new compromise in advance of the meeting on the individual articles of the Regulation still open (Articles 7, 8 and 25). Therefore, the meeting was said to have been brief.
The German Presidency reportedly forwarded a draft compromise on Article 25 of the Regulation to the EU Council Security Committee for its opinion, but, we are told, has unfortunately transferred the wrong version.
Article 25 aims at initially protecting the essential interests of the EU against interference from non-Member States. The German proposals, which seek to strengthen the intergovernmental dimension in the control of entities, and a way of doing things which is sometimes considered unconventional, have so far caused the negotiations to become tense (see EUROPE 12552/2).
With regard to the letter from the EU Council Working Party on the United Kingdom, which was highly critical of the German proposals on Articles 7 and 8 (see EUROPE 12566/8) and in particular of the participation of a non-Member State in the SST (Space Surveillance and Tracking of objects in orbit) Consortium, the German Presidency reportedly indicated that it was in the process of carrying out a thorough analysis of its content.
There are fears that the negotiations will be delayed, bearing in mind that there are still interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament. An agreement after December could have unfortunate consequences, particularly on the financial continuity of the various European space programmes, we are told.
The next meeting of the working party is scheduled for 6 October. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)