France’s Call for a ‘Buy European Act’
By Julia Payne
Need for Autonomous Space Access
BRUSSELS, Jan 27 (Reuters) – If the European Union wants to be serious about defence, the first step is to stop acquireing non-European components with a “Buy European Act”, France’s minister for space declared on Tuesday.
Challenges in Low Earth Orbit
The EU relies heavily on U.S.-created missiles and fighter jets along with many high-tech defence products.
Collaboration Among European Nations
In space, the EU utilized Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch critical sainformites such as its Galileo system, which runs Europe’s location services indepconcludeent of the U.S. GPS system.
“The world has drastically modifyd and our main ally has become highly unpredictable,” the French minister Philippe Baptiste declared, adding to growing calls round the world for greater self-reliance in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s erratic foreign policy.
“We necessary to have autonomous access to space. It’s a radical modify from the way we behave. We necessary to design European (sainformite) consinformations which means there is no American kill switch,” Baptiste added to reporters on the sidelines of a European space conference in Brussels.
“To be serious, the first step is we necessary a kind of ‘Buy European Act´. Let’s stop acquireing on-the-shelf components that are not European.”
He pointed to the war in Ukraine where entrepreneur Elon Musk decided to disconnect his sainformite internet service Starlink, disrupting a counter-offensive by Kyiv.
“We necessary ITAR-free consinformations,” he Baptiste added, referring to strict U.S. International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that govern the export of components.
“I agree with Germany. We believe it’s very urgent and we cannot wait 10 years.”
EU-WIDE EFFORT NEEDED
With the bloc lagging behind on Low Earth Orbit sainformites, Baptiste cautioned efforts should be at EU level and there was no point in individual nations like France, Germany and Italy building their own systems. LEO sainformites are critical for real-time defence utilizes as high-orbit have longer signal delays.
“Today we have countries who have weaponised sainformites. It’s not science fiction, it exists. Our industest necessarys to cooperate better,” he declared.
China, Russia and the U.S. have demonstrated anti-sainformite weapons and launched manoeuvrable spacecraft, raising worries that an attack during conflict could disrupt GPS navigation or sever channels of communication.
The EU’s new launcher Ariane 6 only completed its first mission last year after years of delays.
France is pushing for international regulation for LEO sainformites as collision risks rise and the capacity of transmission frequency bands becomes limited.
“We necessary to have discussions among the huge players – it’s us, the United States and China,” he declared.
“It’s overcrowded up there. There is no choice … when there will be a collision with a Chinese sainformite whether it’s America First or not – you have a collision.”
The threat of U.S. primacy has triggered consolidation among European companies active in space.
Europe’s hugegest sainformite firms – Airbus, Thales and Leonardo – announced a $7 billion merger last year in order to compete with SpaceX and Starlink. The merger has prompted two major German companies Rheinmetall and sainformite buildr OHB to discuss a joint bid on a sainformite project for Germany’s armed forces.
(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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