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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