Toulouse: The EU Space Act faces its first committee vote in the European Parliament on 10 November 2026, after the Industry, Research and Energy Committee pushed the date back under a revised timetable. The Commission tabled the EU Space Act on 25 June 2025, and rapporteur Elena Donazzan of the European Conservatives and Reformists presented her draft report on 3 March 2026. Trilogue talks cannot start until Parliament and the Council each settle a mandate.
The proposal rests on three pillars: safety, including tracking and debris, resilience, including cybersecurity, and sustainability, including environmental footprint and in-orbit servicing. It covers EU operators and non-EU operators serving the EU, with duties scaled by size and risk. Public consultation ran from 15 July to 7 November 2025, and the Environment and Internal Market committees delivered opinions on 19 March and 21 April 2026.
Cybersecurity divides the institutions most sharply. The Commission wants the EU Space Act to replace the relevant NIS2 provisions for space operators, while the Council would run the two sets of rules in parallel and limit the resilience chapter to operators outside NIS2. Parliament’s rapporteur goes further and deletes the resilience chapter, folding space into NIS2 through a new article. The Commission’s text requires an early warning within 12 or 24 hours, a report within 72 hours and a final report within one month.
The Council has not adopted a general approach. Ministers gave broad backing in December 2025, and the Cyprus Presidency circulated compromise texts in December, on 30 March and in May. A progress report in May said the text was moving in the right direction, but every member state kept a scrutiny reservation. Open issues include dual-use scope, governance, duplication of national procedures and the equivalence regime for third countries.
Licensing is another battleground. Parliament wants shorter review deadlines, a six-month limit for national authorities and deemed authorisation if they miss it, while the Council keeps the Commission’s overall deadline of 12 months. Non-EU operators must register with the EU Agency for the Space Programme and appoint an EU legal representative unless Brussels recognises their home regime as equivalent. No equivalence arrangement exists with the United States, and the proposal contains no grandfathering clause.
The timetable is long. A law firm analysis expects adoption in 2028 at the earliest, with entry into force around 2030 or 2031, and sources disagree on the application date, so readers should treat any single date with caution. A smaller outlet reports that Parliament would remove the fine cap of 2 percent of worldwide turnover, although only one source carries that claim.
Money and strategy frame the debate. The 14.8 billion euro space programme for 2021-2027 ends next year, and the Commission proposes a Competitiveness Fund with 131 billion euros for defence and space in 2028-2034. On 7 August the Commission signed an implementation agreement for the IRIS2 constellation, which grows from 282 to 348 satellites, with first launches in 2029.
Industry warns that compliance costs under the EU Space Act could squeeze smaller firms against American and Chinese rivals, and operators outside Europe want clarity on equivalence before the EU Space Act reaches trilogue. The 10 November vote will show whether the EU Space Act leaves committee with a majority behind it or sends negotiators back to the drawing board.
