Strasbourg: Europe’s first attempt at a common rulebook for orbit is edging toward the finish line, as the Council circulated a compromise text on the Space Act in May 2026 that sets up trilogue talks with the European Parliament expected to open late in the year.

The Commission unveiled the Space Act on 25 June 2025 as a single regulation on the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities across the Union. It would replace a patchwork of national licensing regimes with one framework covering any operator that wants to work in the European market.

Andrius Kubilius, the Commissioner for Defence and Space, cast the proposal as a turning point for European autonomy.

A space revolution is coming. The 21st century will be the century of space. Europe needs to be at the forefront. Let us embark on this extraordinary journey for our autonomy, resilience and competitiveness.

The text rests on three pillars. Safety rules would push operators to track debris and avoid collisions in an increasingly crowded orbit. Resilience rules would impose cybersecurity duties and incident reporting adapted to the space sector. Sustainability rules would require companies to assess and cut the environmental footprint of their missions, while supporting new services such as debris removal and in-orbit repair.

Crucially, the regime would apply to non-EU firms too. Kubilius has been blunt that the aim is a level playing field for every operator active in the Union, including Starlink and other foreign constellations, a signal aimed squarely at Washington and the fast-growing commercial launch market.

The two co-legislators do not yet agree on how to build it. The Council wants to narrow the regulation’s reach and align its obligations with the existing NIS2 cybersecurity directive to avoid overlapping requirements. The Parliament has pushed further, proposing to fold space activities directly into NIS2 and strip the resilience chapter out of the standalone act altogether.

Several questions remain open as the institutions prepare to negotiate:

• The scope of the regulation and which smaller operators it should catch.
• How to treat dual-use and defence-related activities and exemptions.
• The governance architecture and the division of responsibilities between the EU and member states.
• The treatment of third-country operators seeking market access.

For the lawmakers steering the file, the stakes reach beyond commerce. Members leading the talks have framed control of space as decisive in modern hybrid warfare, arguing that satellites underpin navigation, communications and intelligence that Europe cannot afford to leave unregulated or dependent on others.

The commercial context is unforgiving. European launch and satellite firms compete against far larger American rivals, and the Commission argues that fragmented national rules raise costs and deter investment. A single licence, it contends, would give homegrown companies a clearer runway while holding every operator to the same safety standards. The Commission’s case is set out on its dedicated policy page, with the Council’s evolving position captured in its May 2026 compromise document.

Trilogue negotiations are unlikely to be quick. With scope, governance and the treatment of foreign operators all unresolved, the Space Act could take much of 2026 and beyond to finalise, even as the number of objects in orbit keeps climbing. Background analysis is available in the Parliament’s own research briefing.