The European Commission has proposed a new standalone regulation for EUSPA, aiming to secure the agency’s operations beyond the current EU budget cycle and expand its role in space systems and policy implementation from 2028 to 2034.
The European Commission has proposed a new standalone regulation for the European Union Space Services Agency, seeking to guarantee the agency’s operations and define its role in the next phase of the EU’s space policy architecture. In a news article published on 7 April, the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space said the proposal is intended to ensure continuity for the body currently known as the European Union Agency for the Space Programme, or EUSPA.
The move matters because the agency’s existing legal basis is tied to the current multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027, while its responsibilities have expanded beyond that original cycle. According to the Commission’s proposal dated 7 April, the purpose of the new regulation is to provide a self-standing founding act that gives the agency legal certainty and operational continuity beyond future budget periods.
The proposed change is not merely administrative. In the text of the draft regulation, the Commission says the agency is expected to play a crucial role in implementing Union space systems and wider space policy from 2028 to 2034 as part of the European Competitiveness Fund. That places the agency firmly inside the next generation of EU planning for satellite navigation, Earth observation, secure connectivity, space situational awareness and related civil and defence applications.
One of the clearest elements in the proposal is the agency’s planned renaming. The draft regulation states that the current European Union Agency for the Space Programme would become the European Union Space Services Agency. The Commission says this is meant to reflect more accurately the body’s current and future role as an operational actor supporting the delivery of Union space systems rather than simply administering a programme framework. That change in title is therefore intended to signal a broader institutional shift rather than a cosmetic rebranding.
The proposal also sets out in more detail the tasks the agency would retain, the tasks the Commission would continue to entrust to it, and the additional responsibilities it could assume subject to operational readiness. Under the Commission text, the agency would continue to handle security accreditation, operational security for parts of the EU’s space components, user-community support, technical expertise and certain market-uptake activities. It would also remain central to the management and exploitation of positioning, navigation and timing systems, along with responsibilities linked to GOVSATCOM.
Beyond that, the proposal points to a wider future role. The Commission says the agency could take on specific actions supporting Earth observation security, management functions connected to secure connectivity, provision of governmental services under GOVSATCOM and IRIS², space weather services, space surveillance and tracking tasks, radio-frequency interference monitoring, and support for technological sovereignty and research and innovation. The list set out in the draft regulation underlines how far the agency is being positioned as an operational backbone for a growing number of EU space services.
There is also a budgetary dimension. The Commission states in the explanatory memorandum that the Union contribution to the agency under the 2021-2027 framework amounts to €525.7 million. For the next framework, covering 2028-2034, the proposal provides for an allocation of €979.6 million to continue current tasks and fund new activities under the expanded mandate. That near-doubling is significant because it shows that Brussels expects the agency’s role to deepen materially in the next cycle rather than simply carry on in its existing form.
For the defence and security field, the proposal is important because EU space policy increasingly overlaps with resilience, secure communications, governmental services and crisis continuity. The draft regulation expressly refers to functions connected to secure connectivity, governmental users, operational security and support to space operators, including on cybersecurity. Taken together, those provisions show that the Commission sees the agency as part of a broader institutional framework in which space is no longer treated as a separate technical domain, but as an area increasingly linked to strategic autonomy, defence capability and critical infrastructure.
At this stage, however, the proposal remains just that: a proposal. The 7 April Commission document has to pass through the EU legislative process before it can take effect. That means the final shape of the agency’s mandate, governance and resources may still change. But the direction of travel is already clear. Brussels wants a more stable, more operational and more explicitly service-oriented agency at the centre of its next space cycle.
