Carpe diem: Europe must make a genuine space policy now

This article examines the current effort to establish a ‘European space policy’. The authors place this effort in the context of the experience of the 2003 Green and White Papers, the subsequent stalling of the Constitutional Treaty for the EU, and reductions in the EU's financial perspectives. They argue that, despite post-referenda malaise and systemic inertia on the part of several member states, adoption of a space policy is long overdue and should not merely seek to rearrange what is already there or expose yet again what is being done. A full-blooded policy setting in train fundamental change is needed, justifying a political decision at the level of the European Council. The article then offers criteria such a policy should fulfil as well as items the authors view as essential content. They briefly explore issues which could become stumbling blocks but which can be accommodated within the kind of policy this article advocates.