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The European Commission told Euronews Next that they expect to propose a European space law sometime in April.

Europe is on the verge of a new frontier with the creation of a possible new space law.

The European Commission is set to adopt a European Space Law (EUSL) sometime this month, a Commission spokesperson told Euronews Next.

The law, if passed, would regulate the ongoing developments in space, including traffic management, sustainability and cybersecurity.

Euronews Next takes a look at why this law is being proposed and what could be coming in the draft.

The European Commission has been working towards a space law for years.

The European Union started in 2021 with the launch of the EU Space Programme, a grouping together Europes many projects in space, including Copernicus, the Earth observation programme, and Galileo, Europes solution for GPS navigation from space.

In 2022, the bloc got even more involved in space. Early in the year, it recognised that space is a strategic domain and, in tandem, developed a strategic compass called the EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence to defend the continents interests in space before 2030.

The strategy mentions for the first time the possibility of an EU space law to "provide a common framework" between countries.

At the same time, a group of European space ministers adopted conclusions about an approach to space traffic management, a policy issue that they describe as a priority because of the amount of debris in space.

The European Council estimates that more than one million pieces of debris are currently orbiting the Earth and that this debris could damage or destroy European satellites currently in operation.

The creation of the space programme IRIS2 means there will be hundreds more European satellites going into orbit in the next few years.

Developing an EU space law was also included in Commission President Ursula von der Leyens priorities for 2024.

The raison d'tre of the EU space law is to create a "true single market" for space, according to Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market.

There are 11 European countries with national space laws, including Belgium, France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, according to the European Space Agency.

Breton said these "diverse" national laws are a "fragmented approach [that] prevents us from acting as a bloc with the necessary size to matter".

The proposal will work on three pillars: safe satellite traffic to avoid "increasing risk of collisions," protecting the EU infrastructures against cyber attacks and building Europes space sector as an "important enabler of services," according to the Commissions website.

The law could set minimum requirements for all space systems specifically on anti-collision, have regulations around how and when satellites could be taken down from orbit, and could include ways to mitigate cyber security risks.

"[The EU Space Law] is also a matter of security as in the current geopolitical context, the protection of our space system from systemic security risks is a must," Breton added.

On sustainability, the government said in its call for evidence that so far, the European Union does not have a viable way to measure the environmental footprint of space activities, including the emissions produced by space companies.

That means space companies might not be complying with other EU regulations on the environment.

According to a report in Politico, the draft law could include standards to curb light pollution and a label for companies.

None of the regulations that will be put in the new law will "limit EUs innovation and the potential of European startups," according to Breton.

Matija Rencelj, research manager at the European Space Policy Institute, said the new law is welcome so long as it considers what it could add to the laws that individual member states already have.

"There have been comments by Commissioner [Thierry] Breton about the need for a single market space, we need to assess that gap in terms of are we far away from a single European market," Rencelj said.

"What is important for us is to see how a space law can act as a conducive force towards creating new markets".

So far, Rencelj said certain parts of the European space market, like the satellite market, are not fragmented so much as dominated by a single player.

"We are not shying away from the idea that competition should be increased," Rencelj said.

This is a view shared by Eurospace, the trade association of the continents space industry.

In their submission to the Commission, they wrote that the space law should prioritise creating a stable legal framework for the blocs space activities that will, in turn, bring more investment and innovative research to the region.

"Industry expects the future legislative proposal to not risk fragilising its good position on the open markets," their submission reads.

Eurospace proposes that the law give preference to European companies that are looking to operate within the EU zone to protect them from "additional costs" that non-European actors might not have to face if the new law is put in place.

If done correctly, Rencelj said the new space law could be promising for all Europeans.

"Space is a domain where there are a lot of opportunities that still remain to be exploited," he said.

"A new space law can act as an important element that would enable Europe to benefit from all that," he added.

Continued here:
Europe may soon launch a new space law. What should we expect? - Euronews

The European Union has allocated 150,000 (over 11 million Afghan Afghanis) to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to families affected by the extreme cold temperatures that hit Afghanistan in early March.

This EU funding was channelled through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help deliver vital relief items to around 11,200 people in some of the most affected provinces, including Badghis and Kunduz. They included warm clothes and footwear; multipurpose cash grants to help the most affected people meet their daily basic needs; as well as kits containing menstrual pads, soap, underwear, toothpaste and toothbrush, and other essential hygiene items for women and girls.

The funding is part of the EUs overall contribution to the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) of the IFRC.

At least 70 people died and more than 14,000 were affected in several high-altitude provinces in Afghanistan that experienced heavy snowfall and extreme cold temperatures since the beginning of March. With temperatures plummeting to as low as minus 33 degrees Celsius, over 70,000 livestock perished, stripping households of their source of income. The snow also damaged nearly 1,500 homes and blocked main traffic roads, making it difficult for people to travel to buy their necessities.

Background

The European Union and its Member States are the world's leading donor of humanitarian aid. Relief assistance is an expression of European solidarity with people in need all around the world. It aims to save lives, prevent and alleviate human suffering, and safeguard the integrity and human dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises.

Through its Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department, the European Union helps millions of victims of conflict and disasters every year. With headquarters in Brussels and a global network of field offices, the European Union provides assistance to the most vulnerable people on the basis of humanitarian needs.

The European Union is signatory to a 8 million humanitarian delegation agreement with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to support the Federation's Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF). Funds from the DREF are mainly allocated to small-scale disasters those that do not give rise to a formal international appeal.

The Disaster Response Emergency Fund was established in 1979 and is supported by contributions from donors. Each time a National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society needs immediate financial support to respond to a disaster, it can request funds from the DREF. For small-scale disasters, the IFRC allocates grants from the Fund, which can then be replenished by the donors. The delegation agreement between the IFRC and ECHO enables the latter to replenish the DREF for agreed operations (that fit within its humanitarian mandate) up to a total of 8 million.

Continued here:
European Union support to relief victims of cold wave in Afghanistan - EEAS

Asking to bring to light the issues in which the European Union (EU) will play a crucial role in the next term of 2024-2029, well embark upon the journey back to the start. But in order to do this, I must recollect that before becoming an Member of European Parliament (MEP), I was a public health medical doctor very much focused on a PhD in Sweden, far from imagining that, in addition to being invited to join a shortlist of candidates for the European elections, I would actually be elected in a period of modern history where health has never been more important.

New faces filled the unfamiliar halls of the European Parliament, bringing a sense of optimism and determination to tackle the pressing issues facing the Union. However, the world was blindsided by an unprecedented crisis. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, leaving no corner untouched, and the EU found itself at the epicenter of a battle against an invisible enemy.

In the wake of this crisis, the importance of health skyrocketed from being a mere policy area to the forefront of political agendas. Suddenly, discussions that were once confined to conference rooms and committee meetings were thrust into the spotlight, dominating headlines for several weeks in a row. The pandemic laid bare the vulnerabilities of healthcare systems across the European Union and underscored the critical need for robust, coordinated action to safeguard public health.

And I am proud to say that the EU delivered. The EU4Health programme 2021-2027 represents the largest-ever investment in health by the European Union with over 5.3 billion euros allocated to support various key areas of health and Member States healthcare systems.

Just as I didn't anticipate the journey from public health doctor to MEP, the world did not foresee the seismic shift where health was catapulted to the forefront of our debates

This legislation together with the Regulation on the serious cross-border threats to health and the increased mandates European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), marks the turning point where the EU become more and more pivotal in health, laying the foundations for the construction of the European Health Union.

The focus on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the biggest burden of disease in the EU, was also brought to the discussion arena. Cancer emerges as a tremendous foe, and with the new Europes Beating Cancer Plan as well as more than 4 billion euros of funds for prevention, early detection, accessibility to treatments and quality of life, the EU is now ready to lead the way. But lets not forget all other NCDs and where the EU can be a game-changer. From cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic diseases to mental health conditions and many others, primordial prevention is our strongest weapon. Our endeavor is to decrease exposure to risk factors and augment protective factors. And considering that social inequities are directly linked to inequities in health, our social welfare plays an important role, as do our cities green spaces, stronger and supporting communities, work-friendly environments that nurture productivity without sacrificing health, quality in the air we breathe and the water we consume, among many other health determinants. These pillars of our modern existence are meaningless, and Id say impossible to reach, without a One Health approach. If we are ambitious enough, we can streamline them faster if we are bold enough to implement a Health in all Policies approach.

However, during this mandate the EU failed to deliver several crucial revisions such as the long-awaited Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and the Tobacco Products and Tobacco Advertising Directives. Similarly, the proposed revisions to the regulation on food information to consumers (FIC) faced hurdles, particularly concerning the harmonisation of mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling, health warnings on harmful food products, and mandatory origin information for all food products. Considering that around 40% of all deaths by cancers are preventable and that these 3 legislative initiatives tackle chemical substances responsible for a great majority of the EU's deadliest types of cancer, one cannot say we are being effective in this battleground.

Looking ahead to the next mandate, there is a pressing need to expedite negotiations on critical directives and regulations pertaining to the pharmaceutical package. These legislative efforts are essential for ensuring the safety, efficacy, and accessibility of medicinal products, thus safeguarding the health and well-being of European citizens in the years to come.

The next European Parliament must take decisive actions monitoring the development of these topics but also in the promotion and participation of public debate on the global fight to antimicrobial resistance, the so much demanded strategy for mental health, initiatives to counter the brain drain and the health workforce crisis, call for a strategic autonomy in the health sector, the achievement of the HIV 95-95-95 targets by 2025 and the fulfillment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals target 3.

Just as I didn't anticipate the journey from public health doctor to MEP, the world did not foresee the seismic shift where health was catapulted to the forefront of our debates during this mandate. Whether propelled by unforeseen crises or long-standing challenges, the EU found itself confronting critical moments and was up to the challenge under Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to address the health needs of its citizens head-on. It's evident that the EU has a lot yet to offer, however, as we dive into the elections from the 6th to the 9th of June, we desperately need political forces in the European Parliament that are unapologetically pro-European and unwaveringly committed to upholding the social rights and well-being of all citizens. Pledges wont be enough to face populism but one can only hope that the collective memory empowers citizens to choose representatives that strive for better health and well-being for all in a true European Health Union.

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A continued focus on health will help to deliver for the people of Europe - The Parliament Magazine

EU voters will hit the polls in June in a different world than the last European Parliament elections in 2019 a world marred by Covid, war, economic turmoil and climate change-induced drought.

(CN) Millions of young Europeans will be eligible to vote for members to the European Parliament for the first time in June, according to data published by Eurostat on Thursday.

Elections, according to the EUs voting website, "[are] a unique moment when we can all collectively decide on the future of the European Union. Voting is always important, be it at local, national or European level. It is an excellent opportunity to have your say on topics you care about."

Germany has the largest number of eligible voters in the EU at 64.9 million, followed by France, 49.7 million, and Italy, 47 million. These three countries also have the largest number of first-time voters, with Germany topping 5.1 million people who have come of voting age since the 2019 election. This adds up to nearly 8% of Germany's voting pool.

Along with having the most voters, Germany, France and Italy will also send the most members to Parliament: Germany will have 96 representatives, France 81 and Italy 76.

With just 400,000 eligible voters, Malta has the lowest number in the EU, followed by Luxembourg and Cyprus which are both below 700,000 people. With the smallest populations in the EU, these nations only send six representatives each to Parliament.

Malta and Cyprus also have the lowest numbers of eligible first-time voters in the EU 20,000 and 37,000, respectively.

Every five years, voters across the EU choose more than 700 members to sit in the European Parliament, representing 450 million Europeans in the worlds only directly elected transnational assembly. Elections will be held June 6-9.

In addition to selecting individual candidates, many Europeans vote for political parties that represent their views. Once elected, many political parties group together into transnational groups with common interests.

Seven transnational political groups and 10 parties are currently represented in Parliament, including the Party of European Socialists, the European Green Party, the European Conservatives and Reformists Party and the European Christian Political Movement.

In addition to approving the EUs budget, members of the European Parliament shape the European Commission, a body similar to the U.S.s executive branch, by electing the president and appointing commissioners.

With the last elections held in 2019, this is EU voters' first opportunity to reshape Parliament following the Covid-19 pandemic, Russias invasion of Ukraine, as well as droughts and economic turmoil.

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Millions of Europeans eligible to vote in upcoming Parliament elections - Courthouse News Service

"We are fighting for our survival but were also fighting to be equal members of Europe."

On 1 March 2022, less than a week after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed via videoconference an extraordinary meeting of the plenary of the European Parliament gathered in Brussels. Then, he appealed for a fast-tracked process to admit Ukraine into the 27-strong member bloc.

Zelensky spoke hours after having submitted an application for his country to join the European Union as a full member. Often described as a homecoming moment, the move has been seen as a complement to the political, financial and military support the EU has provided the country since the start of the war.

Although the political push is key, EU officials portray accession as a technical, merit-based process that normally takes several years to finalise. Its one, officials stress, that requires in-depth talks to reform the governmental and bureaucratic structures of a candidate country and align its standards and laws with the body of EU rules the Community acquis and is an operation normally structured around 35 thematic chapters.

From the EUs perspective, walking down the path of Ukrainian accession means revamping the blocs enlargement agenda.

New reality

Today, there are nine countries queueing at different stages in the process to become EU members, the majority of which are in the Western Balkans. The last country to join was Croatia more than a decade ago. Following Zagrebs entry in 2013, the European Commission, the EUs executive arm, promised no further expansion would take place in the short term, giving the bloc time to adapt to the new reality that had seen 13 countries become members in the previous decade.

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom, following the 2016 Brexit referendum, further sidelined any ambition to continue expanding EU borders and gave new impetus to the idea of enlargement fatigue an increasing scepticism about the blocs capacity to welcome new countries.

Those times are now long gone, Michael Leigh, a former director general of the Commission department responsible for accession negotiations between 2006 and 2011 and now a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund, tells The Parliament. He believes that since the outbreak of war, enlargement is being used as a geopolitical tool by an EU striving to become more autonomous in a rapidly evolving and contested international arena.

After Zelensky filed the application, it took EU authorities just a few months to find the necessary consensus to move forward with the procedure, without the detailed impact assessment that would normally have been produced under different circumstances, Leigh says. On 17 June 2022, the Commission recommended EU leaders grant Ukraine the status of candidate country. The first step in the accession process, it was endorsed at the highest political level at a summit of heads of state and government a few days later with some strings attached.

The clock for timely advancements with Kyiv is ticking.

These include seven conditions Kyiv is required to implement, including judicial, anti-corruption and anti-oligarch reforms, while improving domestic legislation vis--vis national minorities. In November 2023, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen estimated that Ukraine had completed well over 90 per cent of the necessary steps set out the previous year.

Despite the war and its impact on all levels of society including an inability to hold elections amid the ongoing implementation of martial law a Commission report published in 2023 noted that the Ukrainian government and Parliament showed determination to carry out the necessary reforms. These reforms pertain to areas such as democratic fundamentals, participation in the internal market, willingness to embrace the objectives of the green agenda, and the ability to assume the obligations of membership and ensure a competitive economic environment.

However, there is an unspoken pre-condition to fulfil. In a recent policy brief on Kyivs path to EU membership, the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel argued that the countrys entry to the bloc will ultimately depend greatly on how and when the war with Russia ends and post-war reconstruction starts.

Constructive abstention

Nonetheless, the Commissions positive assessment paved the way for EU governments to surprisingly move forward at a summit in December 2023, during which leaders greenlit the opening of membership negotiations with Ukraine, as well as Moldova. They overcame Hungarys veto, a pro-Russian pariah in the EU and the main hurdle for Kyiv in the bloc, by suggesting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn leave the room at the time of the vote.

He did so in a pre-agreed and constructive manner, according to high-level officials familiar with the talks. The constructive abstention trick worked once, but Orbn almost immediately then called out the completely illogical, irrational and improper decision by his 26 peers. He has repeatedly cited allegations that the government in Kyiv is infringing upon the rights of Hungarian minorities in Ukraine as a key reason to obstruct the countrys accession bid.

We calculated that there will be roughly 140 veto points all throughout the process, Zsolt Darvas, a senior fellow at Bruegel, explains to The Parliament: The renewed momentum for enlargement does not mean it will be easier for Ukraine to join there is no way that existing criteria are going to be eased.

Welcoming Ukraine could have enormous consequences for the EU as a whole and likely accelerate the case for internal reform of the blocs common institutions, including moving away from unanimous decision making on decisive matters like foreign and tax policy.

Economic disparities

Ukraine is a big country. Before the Russian invasion, its population was estimated at around 45 million people. While many have fled over the past two years, if admitted to the EU Ukraine would still be the fifth biggest member state, just behind Spain and ahead of Poland.

It would also be the poorest, meaning it would be among the major beneficiaries of structural funds aimed at levelling economic disparities in the bloc. According to a calculation by Bruegel, using the current EU seven-year budget figures as a reference value, Kyiv would receive 85bn in agriculture subsidies and 32bn in cohesion policy payments after joining the EU. In exchange, Darvas argues, the countrys entry would benefit the blocs economy via trade and investment opportunities for EU companies, as well as by boosting employment, production and tax revenues.

Following an oral update given by the Commission in a closed-door meeting with EU governments in mid-March, the next step would be the unanimous adoption of a negotiating framework, which sets out the guidelines and basic principles for accession talks.

Once the framework is approved and the intergovernmental conference established, negotiations can begin, with unanimity required to progress on every chapter up until the moment when an accession treaty is signed and ratified by all members which in some countries could even imply holding a referendum.

Importing insecurity

A new methodology adopted by the Commission in early 2020 groups the various negotiating chapters in six clusters. The rule of law cluster which includes the chapters on an independent judiciary, fundamental rights and public procurement is the first to be opened and the last to be closed. This would ensure continued monitoring of an issue that has proven highly controversial for some of the current EU member states themselves.

Andrii Borovyk, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine, believes the new wave of attention devoted to these subjects has been a good push for the country to advance in the sense of anti-corruption, even during the war. In a phone call from Kyiv, he explains to The Parliament that there is a lot we still need to do, but stresses the progress made by Ukraine in the negotiation process.

This is seen as a good opportunity for Ukraine to get a roadmap and some homework assignments on how to build up its institutions and advance on the judicial reforms, Borovyk says. In 2023, Ukraine advanced three points year-over-year on Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index one of the most significant improvements worldwide to score 36 out 100, putting it on par with Brazil. The index scale denotes zero as highly corrupt and 100 as very clean.

Having a date can be a powerful motivating factor for difficult domestic reasons.

Even if there is some progress on corruption, there are still areas of concern that could block Ukraines accession path in the medium-to-long term. From the EU perspective, Leigh calls this the risk of importing insecurity rather than exporting stability, which has been hardly discussed by EU institutions. If Ukraine was to be admitted without regaining control of its full territory, this will become a problem for the EU, he says.

When Cyprus joined in 2004, days after a failed UN-backed referendum on reunifying the island that has been split into two since the 1974 Turkish occupation of the north, the EU said never again to admitting nations with breakaway regions and frozen conflicts. This has led to endless problems with Turkey, Leigh adds. We have not drawn a lesson from the Cyprus experience. Now, the EU is faced with a much more serious situation, in Leighs eyes, with a country that at least for the time being does not control 20 per cent or more of its territory [and] which is occupied by a hostile foreign power.

Reality check

In 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden managed to join the EU in just under two years. By contrast, it took Croatia around eight years. While it is not possible to anticipate how long negotiations with Ukraine will last, some authoritative voices, including president of the European Council Charles Michel, have recently called for an accelerated timeframe, expanding the unions border by 2030. French President Emmanuel Macron, an enlargement sceptic, was the first to do a reality check on this appeal, hinting that the process may take several decades.

Talks are conducted during intergovernmental conferences where all EU countries have an equal voice so successive veto points cannot be circumvented. Historically, bilateral regional issues have held back enlargement progress, Darvas says. He recalls the case of Slovenia blocking Croatia because of a border dispute in the Adriatic Sea, and Greece and Bulgaria stalling the start of talks with North Macedonia over issues pertaining to the countrys former name, Macedonia, as well as laws targeting ethnic Bulgarian minorities.

It will be more difficult for Orbn to be disruptive when he is chair than when he is not.

Betraying the aspirations and frustrating the expectations of Ukrainians by pushing talks into a deadlock, especially if 2030 is set as a likely target, is a major risk. Political divergence and reciprocal dissatisfaction has caused similar obstructions to Turkeys accession application over the course of the past two decades. If the process in practice turns out to be slower and more difficult than foreseen at the beginning, we might find ourselves in a similar situation, Leigh warns. Darvas agrees: Having a date can be a powerful motivating factor for difficult domestic reasons, he says, but can also lead to great disappointment.

A gradual, alternative form of association to the current all-or-nothing approach was outlined by a Commission strategic document published in March: countries could participate in selected policies without being offered full EU membership. This is the staged accession model proposed by the policy community over the years, Leigh says one that has the merit of giving the country in question a stake in the internal market and could even become the blueprint of a renewed neighbourhood policy for the EU, for instance with the UK.

A 2025 turning point?

The clock for timely advancements with Kyiv is ticking. Delaying the adoption of the negotiating framework is causing major headaches. The Belgians are in a hurry to make concrete progress while they are at the helm of the Council of the European Union until 30 June despite Von der Leyen having signalled in February that the next step might need to wait until after the European Parliament elections in June.

Some fear that when Hungary takes over the Council baton on 1 July, the dossier may be stalled for a semester, as it is up to the presidency-in-office to draft the agenda and steer the process.

A high-level EU diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is feeling more optimistic and believes Budapest might be an unexpectedly honest broker: It will be more difficult for Orbn to be disruptive when he is chair than when he is not, the person says. Other senior European diplomats disagree, instead betting on early 2025, when Poland will be in the drivers seat, as a likely turning point for Ukraines EU ambitions.

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Growing pains: What would it take for Ukraine to join the EU? - The Parliament Magazine