Estonia’s request for information on the European Union Space Law initiative

REPuBLIc OF EsT0NIA MINIsTRY OF EcoNoMIc AFFAIRs AND CoMMuNIcAnoNs

Thierry Breton European Commission Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200 Our Ref: 03.05.2024 No 10-2/1259-1 B-1049, Brussels, Beigium

Estonia’s request for information on the European Union Space Law initiative

Dear Commissioner Thierry Breton,

1 am reaching out to you in my capacity as Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology, as Estonia is in the final stage of draffing a national space law and therefore, we would like to ask for information about the current status of the EU Space Law initiative in order to ensure the coherence of our work.

Estonia has been working on a national space law since 2020. We started drafting the law in order to fuifil our obligations under the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. As 1 aiready mentioned, we are now in the final stage to initiate the procedures to adopt rules on the national space registry and the operational aspects of space objects. The main aim is to accommodate Estonian private companies in launching their satellite missions latest in 2025 and to provide them equal business opportunities compared to other Member States which have their national laws in place.

In April 2023 the European Commission published the EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence which announced that the Commission will consider proposing an EU Space Law. Later, during the European Space Summit in Sevilla, the draft EU Space Law was promised to be released early 2024, which is part of the Commissions workplan: A safe space for the green and digital transition EU space law (legislative, md. impact assessment, Articles 114 and 191 TFEU, Q1 2024). However, during your remarks to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy on the 9th ofApril, you addressed the topic and said that the release of the legislative proposal on the EU space law will be delayed again.

Suur-Ameerika 1 / 10122 Tallinn / ESTONIA Phone: +372 625 6342 / Fax: +372 631 3660 / E-mail: [email protected] / http://www.mkm.ee

Estonia has been looking forward to the proposal of the EU Space Law to finalize the text of our national space law. In the light of that, may 1 kindly ask you to provide us more concrete information about the expected timetable for the EU Space Law initiative and ifpossible, also share with us the status of the drafted EU Space Law. In this way we could efficiently ensure that our national space law will be better in line with the new EU Space Law. 1 would appreciate your consideration of our matter.

With best regards,

Tiit Riisalo Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology

Paul Liias +372 625 6341 [email protected]

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