The United States (U.S.) and Europe have a long history of cooperation in space dating back to the very first international satellite, Ariel-1, launched in 1962 as a collaboration between the U.S. and the United Kingdom (U.K.). The Cold War drove international cooperation in the space domain among like-minded nations for both economic and national security purposes. Pooling academic and industrial strengths allowed U.S. and European nations to advance their capabilities faster. That continues today with the European Union and the U.S. partnering on pioneering missions from the James Webb Space Telescope to the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut who flew on the Axiom-3 mission. Beyond these named missions, the space supply chains — and therefore industries — of the U.S. and EU are highly linked.3 Suffice to say, in a world growing more dangerous, the U.S. and EU must advance their cooperation in space to continue advancing economically and from a national security perspective. An eye towards robust collaboration with the U.S. likely sounds quite naive today, given the brash isolationist tendencies of President Donald Trump and his administration, but, by 2030 — the implementation date of the EU Space Act — the U.S. will likely be under different leadership that is more attentive to the importance of the U.S.-EU relationship. Accordingly, any regulatory regime implemented, regardless of which side of the Atlantic, should continue to allow for international collaboration as well as the growth of the U.S. and EU member nations’ space economies. A strong European space sector benefits the entire Western alliance, and PPI endorses the EC’s intent to make it more globally competitive. As the EU looks at updating — and, to a degree, harmonizing — the space regulatory regime for its member nations, it should prioritize encouraging continued innovation, fair rules for international players, and upholding Western values. There will always be tension between these three priorities, but finding the right balance is vital.
Unfortunately, the EU Space Act does not strike that balance. For starters, the legislation would bog industry down with a laundry list of new regulatory requirements that will increase the cost of manufacturing a satellite by 3-10% with additional cost increases likely imposed by new compliance requirements and a set licensing fee that ranges from the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on top of those percentage-based increases. These price increases are not minimal and will not make the European space sector more competitive or innovative. Beyond the impact on the European market, the initiative imposes its long list of requirements on any company doing business in the EU, some of which are not yet feasible, and which, in total, amount to a non-tariff barrier. While the initiative provides the option to accept other nations’ regulatory regimes as equivalent to its requirements, saving companies in some nations from regulatory double jeopardy, it is unclear whether that option will be exercised. Given the clear, disproportionate targeting of U.S. companies and stated goal of reducing foreign dependencies within the European space sector, it seems unlikely that the U.S. will receive an equivalency determination.
The EC should take a holistic look at what is absolutely necessary for this regulatory regime and dramatically simplify the proposal or, better yet, heed Finland and Sweden’s call to skip binding mandates and focus on support and incentive measures. Otherwise, the European Union’s space industry is doomed to be uncompetitive globally and will put a drag on America’s industry as well — just as China is aggressively pursuing leadership in space for economic and national security reasons.
