In view of the slow pace of negotiations in the EU Council on the EU space programme regulation and the preparation of the conclusions of the forthcoming Joint Council between the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA), MEPs and some delegations are concerned about the approach and attitude adopted by the German Presidency of the EU Council.
On Thursday 8 October, the European Parliament’s negotiating group, led by Massimiliano Salini (EPP, Italy), sent a letter to the German Permanent Representation, obtained by EUROPE, in which MEPs expressed their “deep concerns” about the lack of progress on the dossier. “The significant delay in the Council is jeopardising the timely adoption of this important proposal and its application from 1 January 2021”, write the parliamentarians.
They added that: “There is not much time left, we need to schedule and launch the inter-institutional negotiations on the remaining articles as soon as possible in October”. The letter’s signatories recall that the European Parliament is co-legislator on the text and as such must be treated on an “equal footing”.
Because the negotiations are getting bogged down in the EU Council. At the working party meeting on Tuesday 6 October, the German EU Council Presidency, despite a highly critical letter from the working party on the United Kingdom (see EUROPE 12566/8), announced that it would not change Article 7, which in its provisional version allows non-Member States to participate in the SST consortium dedicated to space situational awareness and to the monitoring of objects in orbit.
As regards Article 25 on the protection of the essential interests of the EU against potential foreign interference, the Presidency hopes to present a provisional opinion soon for discussion at the EU Council Security Committee later this month. Several delegations were reported to have expressed some irritation at the slowness of the procedure chosen by the German Presidency. Others reportedly indicated that the EU Council’s Security Committee has a very limited scope of competence over Article 25. In other words, the bulk of the work in the negotiations must be done in the Space Working Party.
Open conflict with the EU Council’s Legal Service
The discussions in the working party are said to have taken a particularly worrying turn in the eyes of several national delegations as a result of an open conflict between the EU Council’s Legal Service and the German Presidency.
The latter reportedly strongly criticised a Legal Service opinion which expressed serious doubts about the formula chosen by the Presidency regarding the decision-making process for drafting conclusions for the EU/ESA Council meeting. The Legal Service reportedly insisted on the Union’s decision-making autonomy. As a reminder, the ESA is made up of Member States, some of which are not members of the EU. The German Presidency reportedly found the opinion to be legally weak or even inconsistent.
The Presidency’s unconventional approach reportedly outraged the Legal Service and astonished the delegations, some twenty of which apparently lined up behind the Legal Service. However, the German Presidency reportedly indicated that it was going to send a new proposal for conclusions without specifying whether it would take account of the Legal Service’s opinion. The Legal Service then reportedly reminded the German Presidency to stick to its role and not to behave like a national delegation.
The unusual case reportedly was raised with the Permanent Representations of the Member States. It is true that in the space of a month, the German Presidency has received repeated indications of disapproval from the national delegations (see EUROPE 12552/2), a very critical letter from the United Kingdom working party, a negative opinion from the EU Council’s Legal Service, and now a letter from the European Parliament.
To consult the parliamentarians’ letter: https://bit.ly/3dbOixm (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)