The European Union’s Deepening Engagement in Space Security

Abstract

Abstract The European Union (EU) has recently increased its involvement in space, in particular through initiatives of the European Commission (COM). While socio-economic benefits used to be the predominant driver of EU action in space, recent developments have shown that the security dimension has increasingly gained prominence. Indeed, all the components of the EU Space Programme include a security dimension (in space and on Earth) and space is more and more integrated in the EU security and defense frameworks. Similarly, space is increasingly identified as a key contributor to European strategic autonomy, while the need to ensure strategic autonomy in the space sector is also emphasized. This chapter will argue that this evolution can be understood as the implementation of the hedging behavior adopted by the European Union in response to changes occurring in the international (space) landscape.