A European agenda for space: resilience, security and sovereignty

Topic 1: Europe’s relative standing in global space competition and major challenges

• How well equipped is Europe as a space power and in comparison to the rapidly developing capabilities of other major powers? Does Europe have the right space infrastructure and policy framework to move ahead?
• What are Europe’s strengths and weaknesses? Where is it ahead and where is it behind? Why?
• For which vital security and defence functions does Europe have a dependency on space assets and what is its level of assured access in each critical area? Are the gaps easy to fix or more long term?
• Where can Europe continue to depend on foreign assets and services (US, other allies and partners, foreign companies etc) and where does it need to have its own autonomous capabilities? And with complicated global supply chains for components and technology, what do we mean by autonomous?
• How capable is Europe of exploiting space as a domain of operations?

Topic 2: Europe’s vulnerabilities and the major threats it faces in the space domain

•  What are the key vulnerabilities in the security of Europe’s space systems and looking at the entire spectrum (satellites, uplinks and downlinks, ground terminals etc)?
• What are the precise threats that Europe has to prepare for in space?
• How good is data protection and cybersecurity in space based systems?
• Is Europe keeping up with technological and scientific advances and are vulnerabilities the result of a lack of technology or lack of adequate investment?
• Where should Europe prioritise its investments to best remedy its space shortfalls and vulnerabilities? For instance, space situational awareness, satellite redundancy or more autonomous launcher systems to get into space in the first place?
• Is Europe able to exploit space effectively for its collective defence and particularly for air and missile defence, maritime navigation, submarine detection, critical infrastructure protection or early warning?

Topic 3: European space governance and the space ecosystem 

• Does Europe have the right institutional structure to optimise its space capabilities according to its security needs?  Are the ESA, EU and NATO adequately tied together and using their comparative advantages to best effect?
• How can the ESA/EU relationship and synergy in particular evolve and what role for EU space funding from the MFF, Horizon, SAFE or other financial frameworks?
• The new MFF negotiations for the Commission budget beyond the 2030 timeframe will be especially important, not only to provide the necessary resources but also to establish the level of ambition and policy direction for Europe’s role in space. So how can the MFF process be best used to support Europe’s future space requirements?
• Where are there duplications, overlap or underlap?
• Is Europe developing its private sector space companies quickly enough and at the required scale? How to get best value out of the European space SME sector?  Is the financial and investment sector up to the task?  Are public-private partnerships delivering?
• Is there a good balance between national European space programmes and multinational efforts, particularly when it comes to the best use of skills, resources, investment and the dissemination of knowledge and expertise?
• Is there scope for more cooperation between the various levels and sectors or indeed the need to create something new?