European Space Governance: the Outlook

Summary:

The Ifri/SWF conference of 13 September 2011 provided an overview of the evolution of European space governance. It was convened almost two years after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and five months after the release of the European Commission (EC) Communication on a future European space strategy.

The space governance debate in Europe is very passionate, as it touches upon the highly sensitive questions of sovereignty and power-sharing. Thus, the desired outcome of the event was to create a balanced view on European space governance, taking full account of the issue's complexity. As a whole, the conference first identified the main structural obstacles in the current European space governance architecture. Second, it focused on the improvement of governance, its link to the existence of an overall political will, as well as the necessity of the debate to be framed in a broader European political context. Finally, a number of tailored and incremental solutions were suggested to improve future European space governance, thus reflecting a pragmatic rather than an ideological approach.

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