The European Union has launched a significant initiative with its new Space Act, a long-awaited piece of legislation designed to regulate satellite and launch operations within its member states. This comprehensive proposal, released on June 25th, aims to create a unified legal framework for the 27 member states, many of which currently lack national space laws or have significantly differing regulations.
Andrius Kubilius, the EU commissioner for defense and space, highlighted the urgency of this legislation, stating in a speech, “It targets the most important problems and growing dangers that can endanger our future in space, namely, that space is increasingly congested and contested.” The act addresses key concerns such as collision avoidance, debris remediation, and cybersecurity. The lack of uniformity across the EU was a primary driver for this initiative, with Kubilius noting that only 12 out of 27 member states currently possess national space laws, creating a fragmented and inefficient regulatory landscape. "This fragmentation is bad for business, bad for competitiveness, bad for our future in space,” he emphasized.
The harmonization effort is substantial, as illustrated by the experience of Germany, which has been attempting to create a national space law for 25 years. Ingo Baumann, a founding partner at BHO Legal, attributed past failures to “politicization,” with some political figures arguing that no law was preferable to a burdensome one. “On that level, Germany will probably never have a law,” he commented.
Under the new EU law, member states will be responsible for issuing authorizations for space activities, with these authorizations having EU-wide validity. Kubilius reassured stakeholders, declaring, “There will be no new red tape, no extra layer of bureaucracy.” The act's reach extends beyond European entities, encompassing non-European companies offering services within the EU. Rodolphe Muñoz, team leader for space situational awareness and space traffic management at the European Commission, clarified, “If you target the EU with your services, then you will be subject the Space Act.” However, the act allows for "mutual recognition equivalents" with third countries possessing comparable regulatory frameworks.
While the act broadly addresses space sustainability, it defers specific requirements, such as deorbiting timelines, to future implementing acts. Kubilius indicated a 25-year post-mission deorbiting timeframe, reduced to one year for very low Earth orbit (VLEO) spacecraft. Muñoz explained this approach: “This is something we would never set directly in the law…It will evolve, you might need to change it, you need to have some nuances that you cannot have in the basic law.”
This approach might create conflicts with existing national laws. France, for example, recently revised its space law, implementing a more nuanced approach to deorbiting than the proposed EU standard. Bernard Chemoul, inspector general of CNES, highlighted a key difference, stating, “We sometimes had satellites with a mission of one year or two years but remained in space for 25 years, and we think it is too much.” Despite such potential conflicts, Muñoz confirmed that member states must comply with the EU law, although leeway exists for stricter national regulations.
The act also introduces a "Union Space Label Framework," akin to the World Economic Forum's Space Sustainability Rating, to incentivize responsible space practices. Despite its ambitious scope, Muñoz cautioned that the act's passage is only “the beginning of the game,” with a lengthy process of debate, amendment, and implementation anticipated.