European Parliament building in Strasbourg. Photo: European Parliament

The European Union is working on a draft of the EU Space Act, which has raised concerns of overreach, particularly among U.S. officials. The Space Act would create a single market for space activities in the EU, and would institute additional requirements. 

International Institute of Space Law President Lesley Jane Smith has unique insight into the process, spending much of her professional career dealing with European space programs and having served on the International Astronautical Federation as general counsel, and as ombudsman for the European Space Agency (ESA). 

She said there’s been a long period of gestation for this act, with announcements over a period of two years before the draft was released last summer. The legislation is co-decided between the European Parliament and the national member state ministers of the EU. The Space Act is not finalized and is not to set to take effect until 2030. 

“Given the number of member states, some of whom have and do not have space laws or technical regulations, the objective behind this Space Act is to create a level playing field, provide technical regulations, to enable the European Union to say everybody operating out of European Union complies with safety, resilience, and sustainability technical standards,” Smith said in a recent discussion on the Space Act during Space Symposium last week in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

Smith believes it would be sensible if this standard could be applied internationally. She noted there has been discussions that international governments could make the case for equivalence of other regulations. 

Governments should make it clear to the European Union that they wish to see their standards built in or applied, and interpreted as equivalent, Smith said. “This is why there is a lot of dissatisfaction and discontent with the process.”

Gabriel Swiney, director of policy, advocacy, and international division for the Office of Space Commerce in the U.S. Department of Commerce expressed concerns about the scope of impact for the draft law. 

“Third country operators have to comply with a certain of the rules. This isn’t just operators of satellites or launchers — it’s anyone who wants to sell space goods or services into the European market,” he said. “This extraterritorial impact that I think is the foundation of our concern.”

Michael Overby, the deputy director of Space Affairs for the U.S. Department of State, also expressed concerns from the U.S. government perspective. He said the department has had regular conversations about the EU Space Act. 

“This fits into a bigger pattern of EU over-regulation, extraterritorial application, discrimination against U.S. companies, and enhancement of trade barriers that I think disrupts the broader trade relationship,” Overby said. “So we view it in that context.” 

Overby pointed to tension between the U.S. approach to regulating industry and the European approach. 

“If Europe wants to try and regulate its way to innovation, they should do that for themselves. But it is definitely an overreach to use whatever legal authority they may or may not have to do that to us, to the space industry,” Overby said. “There is only one country that benefits from that, and it’s China. It’s not the United States. It’s not anyone in Europe.”

The FCC, which licenses satellite communications and space-based activities in the U.S., has also expressed concerns about the regulatory burdens the act would put on U.S. companies. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has said the U.S. will mirror the regulatory approach that Europe takes, if Europe places restrictions on non-EU companies. 

Providing an industry perspective, Janna Lewis, senior vice president of policy and general counsel of Astroscale, said the EU Space Act may complicate things. 

“The way I describe this is jigsaw puzzle pieces, but somebody’s changing the picture on the box, so we don’t know what these puzzle pieces are supposed to look like,” she said. “What is the end game?