At ESA’s 2025 Ministerial Council in Bremen, Germany, a budget of 22.1 billion euros was established for the European space agency for the next few years, divided between the various member countries and some allied countries. The Ministerial marks the beginning of a three-year period under the Italian leadership of ESA, which will end with the next Council in our country in 2028. For this reason, the President of the Ministerial was the Italian Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, who also represented Italy at the Council. Our country is one of the main contributors to the ESA, with economic support that has risen to 3.5 billion euros for the next three years, about half a billion more than the previous three years. On the sidelines of the Ministerial we met Minister Urso to ask him about Italy’s role and future in the space sector.
Few know that Italy is actually an excellence in the space field. Can you briefly explain to us what the Italian role is and why our country is important in the space sector?
Italy is the first European country and the third in the world, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to have had access to space, when it launched a first launch vehicle over 60 years ago from the Malindi base. So it has a long history which today finally finds a new space as a protagonist thanks to the determination of the Italian government which in these three years has invested significant resources in space also using the European resources of the PNRR.
We listened to the director general of ESA outline the 5 key objectives of the European strategy between now and 2040. What contribution will Italy make to these objectives?
Let’s think about the four space factories that were born and that contribute to the growth of startups and small and medium-sized enterprises in Turin, Milan, Rome and Puglia. Let’s think about the development of industrial districts, such as the one just established in Abruzzo. We have more and more of them in our country because space is a sector that unites the peninsula more than others in a common challenge in which large companies operate. The path traced with the BROMO alliance is also important, a grouping that brings together Leonardo, Thales and Airbus, i.e. Italy, France and Germany, creating a great European champion that can compete on a global level in the satellite challenge. An example of what we must do with other countries and in other sectors, space but also in the defense industry.
Investing in space has a strong technological and economic return. And in fact Italy has increased its economic contribution to the European space agency. What does it mean for the future of our country to actively participate in the space economy?
We have increased, like Germany and France, our contribution to the budget of the European space agency because today it is increasingly necessary and urgent to invest in space, not only with regards to economic, technological, scientific, environmental development and its impact on the production system of our country, but also because space has become the place where our freedom and independence are defended. This has been demonstrated by some recent war events such as Russia’s dramatic invasion of Ukraine. Reality requires us to have European strategic autonomy in space and to collaborate with other Western actors, mainly the United States.
Italy also has the first law in Europe to regulate the space economy. What does this law provide?
Italy has created the first national law on space which is also the first law of a European country that regulates the activity of private individuals in space by implementing startups and small and medium-sized businesses in space, because they too must enter this new economy. Because today we know that space is no longer a subject in which only states deal, but increasingly also companies. At this moment it is mainly American companies but it is necessary that Italian and European companies do so too. We hope that our national space law will inspire a new space law that the European Commission wants to implement.
