The French Presidency of the EU Council will seek, on Wednesday 29 June, a political agreement (‘general approach’) from EU ambassadors on the draft regulation to create a constellation for secure connectivity.
After some final clarifications, notably from Germany, the Presidency considered that the text was ready to be presented to the Committee of Permanent Representatives I (see EUROPE 12978/25). According to a Presidency note, seen by EUROPE, the Working Party on Space has strengthened the general objectives and detailed the different phases and activities of the programme, without touching the timetable set out by the Commission (Articles 3 and 4). The infrastructure has been further detailed as well (Article 5).
Concerning the ownership and use of goods (Article 5a), the Presidency distinguishes between the right of use of frequencies by the European Commission and the ownership of frequencies, which remains in the hands of the Member States. The Presidency broadens the scope of the article dedicated to the space sector in order to bring about a European “New Space” (Article 6) - a subject of importance to many delegations, such as Germany and Portugal.
As for government services and the service portfolio, the compromise is more precise and distinguishes between government services provided by government infrastructure and those provided on the basis of commercial infrastructure. The idea here is to avoid too much market distortion. Alternatively, government services with a lower level of security could be purchased from the private sector to increase the size of the market for companies involved in the provision of secure space communication.
On the budgetary issue (Article 11), the Presidency introduced a global amount, but without indicating the earmarking of activities from other programmes, at the request of several delegations who were not happy with the use of Horizon Europe for the constellation. Here the Presidency indicates that part of the budget will be dedicated to the purchase of commercial services for government users. However, a reservation was expressed by some delegations, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, on the principle of using the margins for a programme budget.
The role of the European Space Agency (ESA) in financing programme development and validation activities is also clarified in a new article (Article 13a). Similarly, the obligation to delegate to ESA has been aligned with the terms of the EU space programme (Articles 24 and 25).
The modalities of future public-private partnerships have also been clarified to introduce safeguards in the event of non-award of a contract or default (Article 15). The issue of subcontracting in public contracts is aligned with the provisions of the EU Space Programme.
Finally, in the section on security (Articles 27 to 35), the Presidency clarifies the governance of the programme in relation to the quantum infrastructure and details the certification process for cryptographic products.
To consult the compromise: https://bit.ly/39T2gY2 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)