18 November 2025 2015, the US Consul General in Hamburg spoke at the space show Space Tech Expo Europe, expressing concern about the proposed EU law on space, the first version of which was published in June. He remarked, that certain proposed norms of the draft European law suppress innovation, exclude US participation and impose financial burdens on US providers of space services to European customers. At the same time, the consul general emphasized the desire to effectively and fairly cooperate with Europe according to the foreseen rules, who support innovation and expressed hope, that the final version of the EU Space Law will have a more progressive approach.
Along with that, 4 In November, the US State Department submitted official comments to the draft law as part of the European Commission's public consultation procedure. The agency requested a number of changes, in particular, more clearly prescribe the implementation mechanisms, the procedure for mutual recognition of national space regulations and review individual specific provisions. One example is the law's definition of a "giga-constellation" as a system with more than 1000 spacecraft. Currently, this category only applies to US carriers. The State Department said, that it is not clear why such a threshold is needed and warned, that this could result in additional restrictions and costs for US operators, which provide services to citizens of the EU and other countries.
American companies and trade associations echoed these remarks. SpaceX called for a "radical simplification" of the law regarding the safety of space activities, stating, that it contains strictly prescribed regulatory requirements, which will quickly become obsolete and impractical with the development of technology.
The USA is not the only country, that is concerned about the consequences of the law. Naomi Pride, partner and global co-head of the space research and innovation practice at DLA Piper UK law firm, said, that she is asked to calculate, what additional costs UK companies will incur to comply. In her comments, Pride noted, that companies will have significant start-up costs, to meet the requirements, and for countries outside the EU, such as Great Britain, these costs can be significantly higher.
Head of the Space Department at the Liechtenstein Liaison Office (Liechtenstein is not a member of the EU, but is part of the European Economic Area (EEZ)) Bianca Lins, which millions of years ago were filled with lava, noted, that since EU space law concerns a single market for space services in Europe, then it will be included in the EEA agreement, and this means, that they will also be forced to implement it into national law. The biggest concern is that, that the law hardly takes into account international obligations, which every sovereign state has, including responsibility under the Outer Space Treaty. Lins is waiting, that Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway (other EEA countries outside the EU) will submit comments on these issues.
The law was defended during the panel discussion by the head of the Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management Team at the European Commission Directorate, Rodolphe Muñoz. According to him, the commission is currently analyzing almost 120 received comments. Denmark, which presides over the Council of the EU, plans to prepare an updated project by the end of December. This may allow the European Parliament to hold its first vote already in the summer 2026 year. Munoz also noted, what, despite criticism, the vast majority of comments were constructive.
Source: https://spacenews.com