Brussels: The Irish Presidency of the Council released an updated compromise text of the EU Space Act on 29 October 2026, the first new draft since the Cypriot Presidency tabled one on 30 March 2026. The regulation on the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities in the Union still has no Council mandate, so the new text carries weight for satellite operators and launch providers.

The Council published the new draft as document ST-15118-2026-INIT. It follows the March version, which appeared as document ST-7806-2026-INIT. The Commission proposed the EU Space Act in June 2025 to set common rules for operators across the single market.

Earlier work showed how much remained unsettled. A Council progress report of 8 May 2026 said delegations found the Presidency compromise “moving in the right direction”, yet several issues stayed open. Those included the scope of the regulation, the treatment of dual-use activities and exemptions, the governance architecture, and the treatment of third-country operators, including how an equivalence regime would work.

The same report recorded that every member state upheld a scrutiny reservation throughout the Cyprus Presidency. The Council Legal Service also issued an opinion, filed as document 5893/26. Delegations warned that the EU Space Act should avoid creating “a parallel Union regulatory layer”.

The United States is watching closely. The US Office of Space Commerce said on 30 October that the Department of Commerce, together with the State Department, is reviewing the Irish text. It asked interested US stakeholders to send feedback or proposed redlines to its mailbox, which shows how far the EU Space Act could reach beyond the Union’s borders.

The public documents do not say yet which open points of the EU Space Act the Irish text resolves. Neither the Council nor the Office of Space Commerce summarised the changes from the March draft, and no general approach has been announced. Readers should treat claims about the exact compromise on dual-use or equivalence as unconfirmed until delegations discuss the text.

For industry, the stakes are practical. Operators that launch, fly or deorbit satellites need to know which safety and sustainability duties apply, which authority supervises them, and how a non-EU company can qualify. A text that keeps scope narrow and equivalence workable would ease compliance planning, while a broad reading would raise costs for smaller firms.

Parliament will also shape the final law, so the Council text is only one half of the picture. The Irish Presidency now has to turn its draft into a mandate, and the EU Space Act will move to negotiations only once delegations drop their reservations. Until then, space companies should track each new compromise text.