EU lawmakers have called for more independence from third countries in space launches, including EU-funded space pads and an EU preference, according to a draft report seen by Euractiv.

European Parliament members “note with regrets the current lack of autonomous access to space by the EU, endangering missions related to security and defence”, they stated.

In efforts to reduce third-country dependencies in the space sector, EU lawmakers highlighted “the need to support the establishment of geographically diversified spaceports and launch complexes on EU territory, furthering the EU’s strategic autonomy in the space domain”.

The draft report, titled ‘Strategic Compass and EU space-based defence capabilities’ comes after the EU leaders endorsed their first foreign policy and security strategy Strategic Compass in March 2022.

MEPs are expected to vote on the report in the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) next week on Tuesday (24 October), before moving to the plenary vote in December.

Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said last year that the EU “must develop a fully-fledged European launcher strategy that will ensure its needs, its global position and its autonomy for the next 20 to 30 years”.

However, the European Commission’s communication on space and defence published last spring did not go any further on the issue of the availability of European space launchers and launchpads fit for future uses, such as launchers’ reusability. 

The EU executive will work on  European Space Law that sets rules, especially for traffic management (STM) and to “make sure the critical space infrastructure is safe”, it announced in its work programme published on Tuesday (17 October).

Independent access to space is crucial, the latest row over the lack of EU capacity to launch its own navigation system (often dubbed ‘European GPS’) Galileo satellites highlighted.

The MEPs therefore called for an EU strategy for launchers and for member states to apply a ‘European preference’ in choosing their launchers to space for national purposes.

This would “ensure the economic sustainability of the European launch sector, and reduce dependence on third country launchers as well as in the selection of space data and services by public authorities”.

Pitch in for better infrastructures

MEPs ask to transform the launchpads located on EU territory “into genuine European Spaceports, with dedicated EU funding for their operations and security, to be allocated in the next multiannual financial framework” between 2027-2034. 

More concretely, the launchpads would wear the European label of ‘European Spaceports’, as a way to show off the “recognition of the European nature of launch bases since the security of the member states depends on them, with some sort of common designation and related funding”, one person with knowledge of the file told Euractiv. 

This way, since the EU uses the national space launchpads of Kourou in French Guyana and Kiruna in northern Sweden, the MEPs believe the EU should also contribute financially to their exploitation.

The EU parliamentarians did not specify how high that contribution should be. That said, it could be similar to the exploitation costs borne by the Europeans when using the space pads.

At the moment, the EU budget devoted to the space programme does not allocate any money to the launchpads or the launchers themselves, with the exception of research and development.

The funding could be used for the upgrading of the bases themselves. The Kourou base is currently turning its old unused launching pads into mini-launchers launching pads.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

Source: Euractiv.com