Check against delivery! 

Good afternoon, 

Excellencies, et en particulier ma chère ministre de la défense du Royaume de Belgique, Ludivine [Dedonder], en espagnol, on dirait “Luz divina”, ni plus ni moins. 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Dear colleagues and friends, 

It is a great pleasure to join you once again at this year’s European Space Conference. I think I have been able to come every year and it is a regular appointment in my agenda - and I hope it will still be next year. Well, next year I will not be here. 

In any case, since the beginning of my mandate, I have constantly been arguing for the recognition of Space as a strategic domain with a major geopolitical significance. That is a fact but maybe it is not as much recognised as it should be. 

We know that we are living in data-driven societies and economies which cannot be imagined without satellites navigation [for] travel and the financial sector, earth observation for agriculture, climate, crisis [monitoring and communication].  

You know my colleagues from the industrial sector, [working] for environment, for climate, for [the European] institutions, have been coming here and explaining [it] to you. 

And it is more and more true. But it is also true that our lives are also depending on Security and Defence. Maybe the Europeans have discovered recently how challenging the world in which we live [is] - la dureté du monde. We were used to live in a world [with] peace, trade, and human rights. 

Well, that is not enough. We have to be ready to participate actively in military operations, and this makes satellite communications much more important to synchronise our weapon systems. It is unimaginable to have a weapons’ system that works without relying on what is going on up in the outer space. 

For those who had doubts, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine showcased how much space has become an essential dimension of any security policy.  

Space is an indispensable tool, but it is also a risk factor. It is a risk factor. New threats have shown up, and we see, for example, increasing jamming of satellite signals, cyber-attacks on space command and control, or the testing of kinetic destruction or manipulation of assets in orbit.  

But not only what is happening up there, not only what is happening 200 km to 36,000 km above our heads, but it is also what is happening here on the surface of Earth. How can we protect our ground-based infrastructure, our data links, and of course our space industry where our companies and technologies are at risk of being targeted by espionage or, still worse, by hostile takeovers. 

As High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security [Policy] – and the word “security” is taking more and more importance in my job description. I suggest that in the next legislative period [we] should start putting “Security [Policy] and Foreign Affairs”, because security is becoming more and more important. And part of the security tasking is to shape a common European Union Space Security and Defence policy. 

We - as I announced here last year – have been producing a Space Strategy for Security and Defence, together with Commissioner [for Internal Market, Thierry] Breton. I announced it in my meeting last year with you immediately after it was approved, and we have been developing it, working closely with Member States which are fully behind it. Also, the European Parliament welcomed and supported it, and I want to thank the parliamentarians from all [the] political spectrum.  

I think I can say that this Space Strategy for Security and Defence represents a kind of a paradigm shift in the way we look at space, and in the way we relate space to security and defence.  

And, through this Strategy, we have committed ourselves to implement a series of concrete actions. I will give you some examples of this concrete work ongoing. 

The defence must start by identifying an understanding [of the] threats. You want to defend yourself? To defend [yourself] from what? Which are the threats? Now, the [EU] Member States are systematically gathering and sharing with us information on space threats. Based on that, we will issue a first classified annual Space Threat Landscape Analysis. This will help us understand in particular the range of counter-space capabilities that our competitors are developing and testing. What our competitors are doing in order to represent a threat for us. 

Since quite a long time (2016), we already have a Space Threat Response Mechanism. It is operational 24 hours every day, and it brings together experts from the European External Action Service, from the [European] Commission and from the European Space Programme Agency - the three bodies together. From time to time, we exercise this mechanism. And last year, in 2023, we simulated a cyber-attack incident against Galileo, our global satellite navigation system.   

We exchange constantly with Member States on security-related events in space to support our response. We have to be permanently updated in our capacity. And thanks to that, for example, we have understood better and called out the recent use of ballistic missiles for the launching of a reconnaissance satellite by North Korea, last November.  

Yes, we called out this incident - but it is not enough to call out on an incident or a threat. It is important, it is the first step, but we need to be able to take additional countermeasures, and among these countermeasures, there are sanctions. We have also begun to discuss the potential activation of the EU Mutual Assistance clause among the Member States when one of them has a space asset at risk. 

We need more global cooperation, not only among the European [Union] Member States. We need more global cooperation on space security. We already engage in dedicated space security dialogues with the United States, with Japan and Australia, and other likeminded partners, including NATO. And now we are working – and I hope that we have an agreement soon – with South Korea. To have a good contact with like-minded countries is important, but we need to also have open channels of communication with “less like-minded [countries]".  

In diplomacy, we have to talk with everybody, every day, even with the evil, and on the space domain also. We have to pay attention and try to cooperate or at least to be aware of what we can do with “less like-minded” countries in order to avoid unintended escalation. Because also, this may happen. I did not want [it] but it happened, and we have to avoid unintended escalations. 

At the United Nations level, we have supported the moratorium on Anti-satellite weapons tests that was approved by the General Assembly last year. I think this is a very pragmatic approach to strengthen international security and stability.  

And finally, as every year, I want to talk to you about one of our most important assets: our Geospatial Intelligence Analysis capacity, thanks to our EU Satellite Centre (SatCen). 

All these actions are aimed at safeguarding essential space services for the European Union, but we also use our space-based capabilities for security and defence on the ground.  

And this is the EU Satellite Centre at the Torrejón Military Base in Madrid who is playing a key role. I said [it] several times: the Satellite Centre of Madrid is our eyes from the space, a unique intelligence analysis capability in the European Union. You cannot imagine how useful it is [to] see what is happening everywhere on earth. But to see is not enough, because sometimes you do not see anything, you need someone who makes the link between your eyes and the eyes that are showing you what is happening on earth. This is the analysis and intelligence capacity that the Satellite Centre is providing. 

Satellite imagery and data allow us to inform our decisions as we respond to crises and conflicts ranging from monitoring the movement of pirates in international waters, coordinating humanitarian support after floods, or analysing what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, in Gaza and in other crisis areas. Believe me, it is not crises what we are lacking. On the contrary, we have every day more [crises] and every day they are more challenging. 

And I am happy to say that all European Union institutions and Member States, but also third states and international organisations such as the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), request insights from our Satellite Centre. In 2023, the Satellite Centre provided [nearly] 6,000 reports, dossiers [and] analyses. 6,000 - it is 10 times more than ten years ago. It is a good record – [you] multiplied by 10 your output capacities. 

Last summer, I invited the European Defence Ministers to go to Madrid and to visit the Operations Room of the Satellite Centre. All came, and all agreed, that we need to empower this Centre by ensuring that it remains at the cutting edge of technology for geospatial intelligence and to have a diversity of satellite data sources at hand.  

We do not have our own satellites. We have to ask for images, and we have to diversify the sources of data that we use. We have to be more and more autonomous – autonomous among Member States. I am very happy to know that five Member States signed an agreement to provide more satellite images to SatCen. 

I am not going to go longer than that. I have my explanation on what we are doing directly through the Centre I have the honour to chair its Board. 

This reflects our “European Ambition” in Space. We have to look at that in the broader geopolitical context in which we have to live. A world where the rules-based order is being challenged, where multilateralism is in decline, and, where more and more, it is the use of force which solves the problem. Well, they do not solve the problem, but they create realities de facto. 

Our community of actors has become more diverse. Now, we have private operators, like Space X, and power projection by large space actors is becoming more frequent.  

But still, we are one of the world’s leading space actors. We have world class assets and infrastructure, but in order to remain strong, we have to invest more and better, and together. It is the best way of doing things better - to do it together. To invest more together on space security and defence and by reducing our strategic dependencies which remain strong. 

This can be built step by step, and in particular [by] increasing our capacities with respect to space. 

[INAUDIBLE DUE TO A TECHNICAL PROBLEM]

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-251694