The European Commission is gearing up to publish the world’s first comprehensive space law.
Not content with regulating fertilizers, cars and cheeses, Brussels is looking to create an EU Space Label it could soon slap on rockets and satellites as part of efforts to force companies to use orbit responsibly.
“With each passing day, space is becoming more like the Wild West, and it’s time to have European rules,” said Christophe Grudler, a member of the European Parliament from France who is leading legislative work on IRIS2, the EU’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications system.
The European Commission is expected propose the world’s first comprehensive space law after Easter.
According to documents seen by POLITICO, the bloc’s diplomats have been briefed on plans to create an EU Space Label that will be used to designate companies that play by the new rules on sustainability and security, much in the same way that the bloc uses eco-labels to certify washing machines or televisions.
I could be wrong and biased but it could just be that the US is so far ahead in the commercial space… uhhh… space. EU has been piggybacking (and paying for) US company launches because their programs have not caught up yet. They’re getting there but setbacks keep happening.
Better US companies than Russians like it was before TBH. That said, regulations are one of the EU’s ways to negotiate trade and throw its weight around. The EU is supposed to bring competitive advantages to EU economies, that’s what it was made for.
Totally agree! I hope my comment wasn’t taken as a negative. I am biased but there are several EU projects that are looking so promising and primed to actually compete with SpaceX which should bring healthy accelerated advancements.
TBH what I’ve heard is that a major obstacle to that is that ESA has an absolute dogshit culture. Hope it has changed or will change, but I don’t see it moving forward like this any time soon, and I also don’t see other developments trying to take over in Europe.
I too wish we wouldn’t have to rely on SpaceX, or anything US-based really, with how fickle politics there is nowadays.