The European space sector as an enabler of EU strategic autonomy

Today, the European Union can boast a degree of strategic autonomy in space. Projects such as Galileo have not only enhanced the EU’s economy, but they may confer on the Union the ability to amplify its Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy. While the EU continues to promote the safe, secure and sustainable use of space, it is also true that space is rapidly becoming a political arena that hands over geopolitical competition on earth. Space is crucial for EU security and defence.

As this study indicates, the EU is nevertheless at a cross-roads and it needs to develop ways to ensure that it maintains its strategic autonomy in space. Without strategic autonomy in space, there can be no strategic autonomy on earth. The study calls for the Union to invest in its space presence, push the technological frontier in space, ensure that its ground- and space-based critical infrastructure is protect, guarantee that its industrial supply chains are resilient and utilise new initiatives in security and defence to further enhance the EU’s ability to act autonomously.