The French Presidency of the EU Council will focus on making progress on the two major projects under development in the space field, namely the secure connectivity constellation project and space traffic management, according to its work programme for the next six months.
The European Commission is expected to present the constellation initiative (see EUROPE 12830/8) on 9 February, according to the College’s provisional agenda, as well as a non-legislative initiative on space traffic management, in line with the roadmap drawn up by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12729/4). Regarding space traffic management, the Presidency wants to contribute to the development of a “common European vision”, it announces, without further details.
Copernicus
The Copernicus Earth Observation Programme will also be the focus of the Presidency’s attention, which will launch a reflection on the future of the programme and its “strategic and environmental” evolutions that will shape the technical and operational choices needed to remain “effective” from now until 2035.
This subject will be discussed at the informal meeting of Space Ministers and the Copernicus Colloquium, organised in Toulouse on 16 February - the famous space summit called for by the Director General of the European Space Agency (see EUROPE 12817/24).
As a reminder, the development of the programme may be delayed due to a dispute over the UK contribution (see EUROPE 12845/5).
Defence and space
The French Presidency is making the space sector an important issue in the strategic autonomy of the EU and defence.
Thus, the Presidency intends to contribute to the work to provide the EU with a space strategy for security and defence (in line with the action plan of early 2021 to create synergies between space, civil and defence industries - see EUROPE 12658/3) and to work on a roadmap on critical technologies in this field and the reduction of strategic dependencies.
On Friday 10 June, a Competitiveness Council will be held on Space Policy.
To consult the Presidency’s programme (in French): https://bit.ly/3EOfJcZ (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)