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Satellite services play a key role across our economies – from enabling Earth observation to ensuring the resilience of several sectors such as mobility, finance and defence – thanks to navigation, timing and positioning systems. In the future, they are expected increasingly to provide connectivity services, including coverage in remote areas and secure connectivity for public authorities. This situation comes with a set of threats and challenges. While the number of satellites in orbit is growing ...

On 25 June 2025, the Commission published a proposal for a regulation on the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities in the European Union (EU) ('the EU space act'). A majority of Member States have already adopted or are considering adopting legislation on space activities. The regulation's relevance was highlighted by Mario Draghi's report on the future of European competitiveness, which explained the role of space systems and services in supporting the EU's sovereignty and economy ...

On 29 November 2023, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a directive amending Directive (EU) 2015/2302 on package travel and linked travel arrangements, to improve protection for travellers and simplify and clarify certain aspects of the current directive. The Commission announced in a 2020 communication on a new consumer agenda that it would look into revising the directive following the turmoil caused by the mass cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal is the result ...

ISSUES AT STAKE • The combined global revenues of Earth observation and positioning-navigation-timing solutions revenues are expected to double between 2023 and 2035, making space services one of the fastest growing economic sectors. According to the European Commission, around 10 % of EU GDP is enabled by satellite signals. However, space congestion hampers further development. • The probability of a new global 'space race' led the European Council to identify space as a sensitive sector where strategic ...

For its new mandate, the European Commission has put innovation and its commercial development at the heart of enhancing European Union competitiveness. The priority builds on the Draghi and Letta recommendations emphasising the need to boost the EU's competitiveness to ensure its long-term sustainability and prosperity. For this purpose, the Commission also aims to revisit the EU's innovation funding programmes to improve their effectiveness and attract additional private investment in innovation ...

On 29 January 2025, the Commission presented a 'competitiveness compass', an economic framework to guide its work in the coming years. Grounded in the key role of productivity in financing the EU's competitiveness ambitions, the compass is about simplifying legislation, pooling private and public investment in key technologies and mitigating foreign dependencies in order to unleash EU innovation. To this end, the Commission intends to issue up to 47 legislative and non-legislative proposals by the ...

On 9 July 2024, the successful maiden flight of the new heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 reinstated the EU's autonomous access to space. This came after several months of reliance on private United States launchers as a result of the temporary unavailability of an EU rocket. In recent years, the space sector has witnessed the conjunction of three trends. First, the space economy has grown globally, also because of competitive private actors. Second, as a consequence, space is now increasingly congested ...

Ekaterina Zaharieva is currently a member of the Bulgarian National Assembly, representing the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (EPP). Having served in several Bulgarian governments, Zaharieva held the dual position of deputy prime minister for judicial reform and minister of foreign affairs from 2017 to 2021. Earlier, she served as minister of justice from 2015 to 2017, as deputy prime minister for economic policy and minister of regional developments and public works in 2013 ...

According to the Flash Eurobarometer 528 survey, released in December 2023, 81 % of Europeans believe that foreign interference in our democratic systems is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. The current geopolitical tensions highlight the following dilemma: while international cooperation is required to tackle global challenges such as climate change, including the participation of third countries in the EU debate, such activities also carry the risk of foreign interference in EU policymaking ...

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on the growing importance of digital health technologies, both to enable remote medical care and to facilitate the health response from international, national and local authorities. The European Commission's May 2022 proposal for a regulation on a European health data space aims to improve individuals' access to and control over their electronic personal data (primary use), while facilitating data re-use for the good of society across the EU (secondary use). The ...