Eurospace Position Paper “Why a European space industrial strategy matters”

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— POSITION PAPER AVAILABLE HERE —

 

The absolute criticality of space as a key asset for the independent and informed decision-making and action-taking of European policymakers has long been recognised.

An industrial policy is therefore needed to ensure that the public authorities have an unrestricted and sovereign access to the space-based infrastructure they need in order to implement public policies and enable the expected services, with the required level of independence. Such a strategy shall first aim at tackling the issues of:

  • The reduced size of the (accessible) demand for European space systems, compared to the other large space powers;
  • The fragmentation and structuring of the European institutional demand in small and sometimes cumbersome lots to ensure a “fair return” of industrial activities;
  • The dependence on critical technologies, materials and systems procured outside Europe;
  • The drop of industry’s profitability that hampers its capacity to make further investments and fully take its share of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) opportunities.

Such a strategy must also address the inefficiencies in the research, technology and innovation domain by ensuring greater coordination between R&D and public policies that drive demand for space infrastructure and associated data and services.

In its new Position Paper “Why a European space industrial strategy matters”, available HERE, the European Space Industry, represented by Eurospace, advocates for the need for a European industrial strategy for space.