L’Europa nello spazio: come evolve la Space Economy dell’UE

The total value of the global space economy amounted to $626 billion in 2025, with average annual growth remaining above 8% in recent years. The space economy is considered one of the fastest-growing sectors, with estimates suggesting that its overall value could exceed $1 trillion by 2030, driven in particular by investments associated with the New Space Economy, characterised by the growing involvement of private investors in a sector that for decades was almost entirely controlled by government agencies and national investors.

In Europe too, the growth of private investment has transformed the space economy landscape. The annual report published by the European Space Agency (ESA) highlights not only the first effects of the private sector’s expansion in 2025, but also the growing attention being paid by European countries to a sector that is becoming increasingly important for the security, defence and strategic autonomy of individual nations.

The ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, and therefore separate from the European Union, which facilitates cooperation and coordination between the space programmes and policies of its 23 member states, while also developing some of Europe’s most significant space missions. As part of its role in facilitating cooperation among its members, analysing the economic situation of the sector and the competitiveness of the European space industry on the global stage are important tools for guiding future policy and legislative developments and overcoming the obstacles currently limiting the sector’s growth.

An analysis of data for 2025 reveals that European countries are moving against the global trend. While public investment in space is declining worldwide, alongside double-digit growth in private investment, public investment among European countries — which reached a total of €13.5 billion — is driving the sector’s growth, alongside an increase in private investment.

Europe’s particular situation is largely driven by the significant increase in defence spending, including in the space sector, with Germany allocating a record €35 billion to investment in space defence technologies for the 2025–2030 period. France has likewise contributed to the overall increase in spending, raising its military expenditure by €4 billion and bringing total spending on the military space sector to approximately €10 billion.

Despite the still significant role played by government agencies, the commercial sector also grew in 2025, particularly in the downstream segment of the market, which consists of services operating through space-based systems, such as satellite communications, as well as services based on data collected in space. The downstream economy grew by 7%, reaching €94 billion and bringing European countries’ share of the global downstream market to 20% — an extremely significant share, particularly given the projected growth of space-based services in the coming years.

The report also highlights the current obstacles and limitations to the development of a strong European space economy, particularly those relating to investment and European competitiveness in global markets.

While, on the one hand, the growth of investment in Europe’s space sector is being supported by increased government spending, on the other, the gap with the United States — where private investment recorded an annual increase of 177% — highlights a structural weakness stemming primarily from Europe’s financial landscape. The space sector is highly capital-intensive, while investment in related industries is often considered high-risk, limiting their ability to secure loans from banks and other financial institutions. In the United States, by contrast, the high availability of capital and liquidity among private entrepreneurs enables significant investment in the space sector. In China, another major global space power, sectoral growth is instead supported by high levels of government investment in state-owned companies, which are also the main actors in the country’s space industry.

Another critical obstacle to the growth of the Space Economy in European countries is competitiveness. The two major space powers, China and the United States, capture a huge share of commercial space-related activities, restricting them to domestic use for reasons of procurement and national security.

This structural limitation reduces European companies’ access to just 20% of the global space market, while European countries, by contrast, do not apply any domestic preference clauses, making European space markets accessible to non-European actors as well.

The vertical integration of space activities, with companies such as SpaceX capable of handling both the production of rockets and satellites and their launch, combined with the domestic — and even corporate — consolidation of sector-specific supply chains, is creating an additional obstacle to European development. This is contributing to market distortions and an almost monopolistic position in the space launch sector, creating a substantial gap between Europe and its ability to achieve full autonomy in the production and launch of space systems.

The strategic importance of the space sector and the speed of its growth have generated renewed momentum to close the industrial and political gap. In 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that he wanted to help make Europe a space power, particularly referring to the need to reduce Europe’s dependence on US satellite technologies. In the same year, the European Commission approved the EU Space Act, the first European legislative act aimed at harmonising space activities and their legal framework across EU member states. The initiative seeks not only to support businesses by overcoming the obstacles created by fragmented national legislation, but also to clearly reaffirm Europe’s ambition to remain competitive in space activities, promoting a new era of technological development capable of ensuring European countries’ autonomy and security, while also meeting the sustainability and innovation criteria underpinning European policies.

The ESA report paints a picture of a European space market characterised by a profound duality. On the one hand, the continent’s space economy continues to grow, driven by record levels of public investment and a strong downstream sector that keeps Europe among the global leaders. On the other hand, the structural gap with the United States and China is becoming increasingly pronounced. To safeguard its strategic autonomy and ensure its security in a sector dominated by vertical monopolies and closed markets, Europe cannot simply maintain its current rate of growth. To secure a place for European countries in the new space race and retain control over the technologies that underpin their geopolitical autonomy, major changes will be required not only at the industrial and financial levels, but also in government policies themselves, which will need to give greater priority to research, innovation and technological development in the space sector.

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