On Friday, TechFreedom submitted comments to the European Commission regarding the European Union’s Draft Space Act. We have long advocated for a more comprehensive approach to space regulation, but the EU’s approach will create additional regulatory burdens on both EU and non-EU space operators.

“The Draft EU Space Act usurps the rights of non-EU countries and violates the Outer Space Treaty,” said James E. Dunstan, TechFreedom’s Senior Counsel. “It is one thing for the EU to claim jurisdiction over satellite services delivered into its territory by non-EU launches. But the Draft Act asserts the EU’s jurisdiction over a broad range of how space objects launched by other countries operate in orbit and on Earth outside the EU. In effect, the Act asserts jurisdiction and control over the objects themselves. This violates the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.”

“The current draft ignores the warnings of the Draghi Report,” warned Dunstan. “Published in September 2024, the Report painted a bleak picture of EU productivity, especially vis-à-vis the US, and especially with regard to emerging technology markets. Yet the EU appears to be heading into a similar brick wall on space regulation. While the EU and US can have strong differences in many areas of policy, when it comes to outer space development, to date, our disagreements have been small, while our alignment has been close, especially when compared with our mutual adversaries, notably Russia and China.”

“Compliance costs appear to be understated and based on shaky assumptions,” Dunstan concluded. “Nowhere does the Draft EU Space Act provide additional information as to how compliance costs were calculated. Most important, the Draft EU Space Act’s authors wave off these costs by claiming a net economic benefit that will result from a projected 50 percent decrease in orbital debris. They provide no firm evidence of how these new regulations would accomplish this, nor how a reduction in overall space debris directly benefits individual aerospace companies.”

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About TechFreedom: TechFreedom is a nonprofit, nonpartisan technology policy think tank. We work to chart a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.

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