At the informal ‘Competitiveness’ meeting in Toulouse on Wednesday 16 February, the EU ministers responsible for space issues unanimously supported the European Commission’s proposals for a regulation on a new constellation for secure connectivity and on the communication on space traffic management. A High-Level Expert Group was also announced to draw up the European space exploration strategy by spring 2023.
The discussions were “fruitful”, said French President Emmanuel Macron in his speech earlier this afternoon. “Europe has made the choice of autonomy”, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told a group of journalists, welcoming this “strong act of sovereignty”.
Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton told a press conference that the meeting was “historic”, as did the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, who said that the summit would probably mark European space policy for five or ten years.
The independent constellation was approved by a large majority at the ‘Competitiveness’ Council of the EU meeting, according to several sources. This was not self-evident, as there was a risk that some Member States would prefer to use already existing constellations.
The advantage of such an approach, the French minister analysed, would have been that it cost nothing or very little. The disadvantage would have been that this approach would have created a new strong European dependency on third states. The minister had expected “difficult” discussions that same morning. These turned out to be “easy and constructive” in the end, he said.
However, the EU ministers have set a series of conditions. Firstly, the constellation must be cost-effective. Secondly, it should focus on SMEs and European companies. Finally, it must not be to the detriment of other European programmes, in particular the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme (which has to deal with the British “hole” following Brexit - see EUROPE 12885/19). However, another diplomatic source regretted that the Commission had once again chosen to dip into the Horizon Europe framework programme.
Responding to EUROPE, the minister said the budget issue had not yet been addressed. The French Presidency of the EU Council was first looking for a political agreement. Member States must be given time to analyse the European Commission’s proposal, Mr Le Maire said. The discussions will go into more detail at the Competitiveness Council of the EU meeting on 9 and 10 June.
The EU Member States have in the same way supported the European Commission’s Communication on Space Traffic Management (STM). There was strong support for the presentation of a legislative act by the end of 2024, the minister confirmed. However, he says the hardest part will be convincing the international partners. For him, this will take several years of negotiation in international fora, including the United Nations.
Expert Group to shape Europe’s future in space exploration
In the afternoon, the Ministers of the European Space Agency (ESA) Member States met to discuss future exploration missions and manned spaceflight, in line with the ambitions of the ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher (see EUROPE 12636/12).
“Europe has not yet defined its strategy and it is too early to do so; we want there to be a method and the method we have chosen is that of a High-Level Group of Experts”, said Minister Bruno Le Maire at a press conference. The specifics of this group have yet to be determined. This expert group is based on the one set up by Aschbacher to define the three accelerators and two inspirators (see EUROPE 12837/5).
“But there will be clear differences”, he said. The mandate of this group, the Director General explained to EUROPE, will be defined in March. It will include independent experts from outside the space sector, he said, indicating that there will also be artists and philosophers.
“It’s not just about space; it goes much further”, he concluded. It is possible that an interim opinion from the High Level Group will be discussed at the ESA Ministerial meeting in November, but it is mainly in the spring of 2023 that the final results of the this group will be presented to the Member States.
European launchers
During his speech, the French President stressed the importance of launchers in empowering Europe. In his view, there can be no sovereignty without autonomous access to space. The future of Europe’s launcher, Ariane 6, was secured at the European Space Agency (ESA) Ministerial Council in Seville (see EUROPE 12379/2). Then there were agreements with Germany (see EUROPE 12767/11) and Italy (see EUROPE 12841/10). The aim was to avoid competition between EU Member States on large launchers. On the other hand, it has been agreed that competition will be open for micro launchers. “May the best person win!”, said Mr Le Maire.
A Space Summit in 2023
Mr Aschbacher stressed the need to move forward hand in hand with the European Union. Responding to EUROPE, Bruno Le Maire confirmed that another Space Summit will be held in 2023. He said that all Member States expressed their satisfaction at having a summit that ”brings everyone together, rather than having separate meetings”, always with the idea of moving forward “faster and together”. “If the future (rotating) Presidencies so request, the European Commission will obviously be there”, said Commissioner Breton. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)