Updated 12/11/2026. The European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy committee (ITRE) did not vote on the EU Space Act on 10/11/2026, the date the rapporteur, Elena Donazzan, had circulated in September; the item was not on that day's agenda. On 04/11/2026 the political groups reached a deal on Parliament's text, and Christophe Grudler, the Renew Europe shadow rapporteur, put the provisional committee vote at 19/11/2026. Parliament's plenary still has to adopt a negotiating mandate, and trilogues with the Council could open in December. The Council moved first: the Irish Presidency circulated a revised compromise text (document 15118/26) on 29/10/2026.
The Act is the Commission's proposal of 25/06/2025 for a single EU regime covering the safety, resilience and environmental footprint of space activities. Grudler describes the deal as treating European and non-European operators alike so long as they serve the EU market, and regrets that it keeps 27 national authorisation procedures rather than a single European one. The committee text itself has not been published.
For a lessor the Act is a question of allocation. When a satellite is leased, the owner and the operator are different companies, and the Act's obligations fall on the operator serving the EU market. A lease signed this year will run well past any plausible application date, so the documents have to deal with the Act before anyone knows its final shape.
What the Act would do
The proposal replaces national licensing for launches and satellite operations with one market-access regime reaching any operator whose activities affect the EU market, whether or not it is established in the EU, including non-EU operators that reach EU users indirectly through telemetry, tracking and command, or through hosted payloads.
The main mechanics, as proposed:
- Authorisation. Prior authorisation from the competent authority of a member state, or from the Commission for a non-EU operator without one. Non-EU operators appoint a legal representative in the EU.
- Registration. Authorised providers go on a Union Register run by the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). An e-certificate proving registration and compliance would be required in contracts for space services or space-based data in the EU.
- Technical rules. Constellations of ten or more spacecraft must be capable of active collision avoidance, which in practice means propulsion. Authorisation requires a debris mitigation plan, and cybersecurity duties sit alongside the NIS 2 Directive.
- Cost. The Commission's impact assessment puts initial licensing at about €100,000 per satellite platform or service line.
What is still open
The three institutions agree on the objective and differ on most of the detail that matters to a financier.
| Issue | Commission | Council | Parliament |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application date | 01/01/2030 | 36 months after entry into force | 36 months after entry into force |
| Non-EU operators | Legal representative and authorisation; equivalence decisions possible | Access through an EU entity, a national authorisation or an equivalence arrangement; no grandfathering of existing contracts | No distinction from EU operators serving the EU market (cross-party deal, 04/11/2026; text not yet published) |
| Penalties | Cap of double the profit gained or 2% of worldwide turnover | Removes EUSPA's role in proposing penalties | Removes the cap; wider Commission discretion |
| Cybersecurity | The Act applies first as the specific law | Runs in parallel with NIS 2 | Deletes the resilience chapter; NIS 2 applies in full |
| Licensing deadline | 12 months overall | 12 months; member states may share tasks | Six months for national authorities, with deemed authorisation if missed |
No equivalence arrangement with the United States exists, so a US operator selling into Europe would need an EU entity or an authorisation of its own. And without grandfathering, a contract signed today is caught when the Act applies, whatever it says about compliance.
What a satellite lease should say now
Aviation settled the owner–operator split long ago. The airline holds the air operator certificate and carries the regulatory duties of flying the aircraft; the lessor owns the asset and relies on the lessee's certificate, with covenants that keep it in force. A satellite lease needs the same allocation, written for a regime still being negotiated.
Who holds the authorisation. The lessee, as operator, should represent that it holds every authorisation the Act requires once it applies, covenant to keep it and the registration current, and deliver the e-certificate on request. Where a non-EU lessee serves EU customers, the lease should require it to keep an EU legal representative or entity in place. The lease should record that the lessor does not operate the satellite; commentary on the proposal notes that a hosted payload owner may fall within scope even without control of the host.
Who pays for compliance. Fees, collision-avoidance capability, cyber controls and reporting are operating costs and belong with the lessee. The harder case is a requirement the satellite cannot meet once it is in orbit, such as propulsion for a constellation satellite built without it. Under an in-orbit delivery or in-service transaction the hardware is fixed at closing, so the lease should treat an unmeetable requirement as a termination event with an agreed termination sum, rather than leave it to a general change-of-law clause.
What happens if authorisation or market access is lost. Loss or suspension of authorisation should be an event of default or a termination event, with a cure period sized to the regulator's process. For a non-EU lessee, losing EU market access may not stop the satellite operating at all, but it can remove a large part of the revenue behind the rent. The credit analysis and the documents should both cover that case.
Who bears penalties. Fines on the operator should stay with the operator, backed by an indemnity covering any claim against the lessor as owner.
How the asset is taken back. The Space Protocol to the Cape Town Convention is not in force, so a lessor's right to recover a satellite sits in the lease and the ground-control arrangements. Under the Act a replacement operator would also need its own authorisation before serving EU users, and the institutions disagree on whether a national authority gets six months or more to decide. A remarketing plan should allow for that lead time.
The committee text, now due on the last day of Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen (17–19/11/2026), will show which way the start date, penalties and third-country rules are leaning; we will update this note when it is published. Caelum's finance lease and sale-leaseback structures would put authorisation, compliance cost and penalties with the operator and give the lessor a defined exit if EU market access is lost. Space Assets 101 explains how a satellite lease works, satellite leasing sets out the structures and the investor page our approach. Related: in-orbit delivery explained and the aircraft leasing playbook.
Sources: European Commission proposal for an EU Space Act, 25/06/2025; European Parliament, ITRE draft agenda for 10/11/2026 (no Space Act item); Christophe Grudler MEP on X, 04/11/2026 (Parliament deal, 19/11 vote); Table.Media, 09/11/2026 (vote date, trilogue timing); US Office of Space Commerce and Space Law Journal on Council document 15118/26 of 29/10/2026; The European Post, 25/09/2026 (original ITRE vote timetable) and 13/10/2026 (institutional positions, citing IBA, Exterra and Gleiss Lutz analyses); Cooley, 24/07/2025 (scope, collision avoidance, hosted payloads, licensing fees); White & Case analysis of the proposal (Union Register, e-certificate, third-country authorisation); WFB Bremen event listing (Space Tech Expo Europe dates). Hero photograph: © European Union, 2018, European Commission Audiovisual Service P-036088, licensed under CC BY 4.0, cropped and colour-graded; Berlaymont architects Lucien De Vestel, Jean Gilson, A&J Polak; renovation Berlaymont 2000. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice.