On Friday 29 November, Poland’s Deputy Minister for European Affairs, Ignacy Niemczycki, expressed the hope that decisions on space would be taken during the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which begins on 1 January 2025.
“I think we’re going to be taking some important decisions over the next six months”, he said on his arrival at the Competitiveness and Space Council, explaining that the European Commission was due to present a new space law.
“Our Presidency’s approach to all our tasks will be such that we want to focus on different dimensions of security. And in this sense, our approach, as Presidency, to space policy will focus on this dimension of security. We want to talk not only about space technologies, but also about how our activities in space affect our security, both military and civilian”, he explained.
The Minister highlighted three guiding principles: the autonomy of the European space programme, the resilience of this programme and the dual use of civilian and military space, i.e. better linking the programme to other areas of public activity. He highlighted the area of defence. “There is a clear link between the technology developed for space and its use to strengthen our defence capabilities”, he explained.
During the Council, the ministers adopted conclusions on the mid-term evaluation of the European Space Programme (see EUROPE 13531/16). These conclusions are a reminder of Europeans’ commitment “to move faster and be more effective at a time when the security and resilience of the space programme appear to be under increasing threat”, stressed Richárd Szabados, Hungary’s Minister of State for SME Development and Technology, on behalf of the Council Presidency. The text “shows that the programme is fit for purpose to ensure that the EU remains at the forefront and provides the basis for further developments to ensure that the EU’s space activities are sustainable. The aim is to give the EU autonomous and cost-effective access to space”, he added.
Conclusions on strengthening European competencies in the space sector were also adopted (see EUROPE 13530/14).
To see the conclusions on skills, got to https://aeur.eu/f/ekd (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)