ABSTRACT

Space is at the heart of Europe’s international relations with the rest of the world, involving the Member States of the European Space Agency and the EU. As such, analysing the framing of space policy is complex because of multiple, often competing, internal and external political interests and values. This chapter seeks to identify the dynamics of the framing process to better understand the weaknesses of the EU institutional frame. Different framing policy options are expressions of different interests, such as market, defence, advocacy coalitions and individual policy entrepreneurs. The chapter presents the different framing approaches behind the EU’s international cooperation with third countries and/or overseas regional blocs. The analysis identifies two main frames: geopolitics and industrial policy. The first is typically adopted in a political context dealing with Member States with space capacities in orbit, where cooperation ranges from mere coordination actions to sharing and managing space-based assets. The second frame operates when cooperating with third parties without space-based technologies and where the EU attempts to promote its own industrial interests to gain a greater share of overseas markets.