Europe stands at a critical juncture in space and defense policy, according to Airbus Defence and Space CEO Michael Schöllhorn, who has argued that the European Union can still achieve a major leap in space capabilities before the end of the decade if it abandons slow-moving, overly ambitious planning frameworks and accelerates concrete implementation. Speaking in an interview with Euronews, Schöllhorn assessed the EU’s current space posture against the backdrop of intensifying global competition, particularly with the United States, where systems such as Elon Musk’s Starlink have already undergone multiple development iterations. He emphasized that Europe’s challenge is not a lack of technological expertise, but a systemic tendency to prioritize elaborate long-term schemes over rapid deployment and incremental progress.
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Schöllhorn explained that Europe currently faces a capability gap in what he described as active space defence, referring to the ability to protect, operate, and respond to threats against satellites and critical space-based infrastructure. He noted that this gap risks widening unless European policymakers move decisively from strategy documents to executable programs. The European Commission has identified space as a strategic enabler within its Defence Readiness Roadmap, highlighting its role in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and secure communications, and has proposed initiatives such as a Space Shield to strengthen resilience before 2030. However, Schöllhorn attributed Europe’s lag partly to decades of under-investment by governments that underestimated the strategic importance of space, leaving European firms significantly smaller than their U.S. counterparts in scale and resources.
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Against this backdrop, Schöllhorn pointed to recent industrial consolidation as a step forward, citing the October 2025 Memorandum of Understanding between Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales to merge their space activities into a single European company. He told Euronews that even this combined entity would rank only fourth globally, behind Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and Boeing, underscoring the scale imbalance Europe must confront. While welcoming increased defence spending plans, including Germany’s €500 billion investment package with €35 billion earmarked for military space defence, he contrasted European budgets with those of the United States, which he said remain significantly larger even before accounting for classified programs. Schöllhorn remained cautiously optimistic, stating in the interview that European industry has the capacity to meet member state demand and could deliver a substantial capability boost before 2030 if given clear, practical program definitions. He also criticized the EU’s handling of the IRIS² satellite constellation, approved in 2024 and expected to be operational in 2029, telling Euronews that the project illustrated the risks of political overconfidence and excessive bureaucracy. In his assessment, Europe should have built quickly on existing systems rather than attempting to surpass Starlink in a single step, concluding that ambitious plans without timely execution deliver little strategic value.