r/europe • u/BkkGrl Ligurian in Zürich (💛🇺🇦💙) • 18h ago
News Exclusive - SpaceX Satellite Rival Set to Be Fast-Tracked by EU Commission
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-15/eu-commission-is-ready-to-fast-track-satellite-rival-to-spacex?taid=6ad1344a6418e9000147fb5c6
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u/BkkGrl Ligurian in Zürich (💛🇺🇦💙) 18h ago
The European Union is aiming to give speedy antitrust approval to a satellite venture seen as the bloc’s answer to SpaceX after intense talks with its partners Leonardo SpA, Airbus SE and Thales SA, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Discussions over the past year have homed in on flagging — and ironing out — any potential competition concerns over the project before it is formally notified for approval, according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity. While the companies have yet to file, EU officials expect them to do so in the coming weeks, the person added.
The venture known as Project Bromo has been lauded by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a potential European champion deserving top-level support, although her second-in-command, Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera, has warned that the project could not expect a free pass from watchdogs.
The plan aims to create a company that can help Europe cut its reliance on American satellite providers, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The project has generated resistance from unions and suppliers who have raised concerns about jobs and competition. The venture will also be one of the first to test a revamped EU approach to mergers more favorable to the creation of regional giants to compete with US and Chinese rivals.
For big deals, such as Bromo, regulators typically engage in detailed pre-notification talks to iron out potential pitfalls. A quick approval could in practice mean the deal is approved after a so-called phase 1 review lasting just over a month if the companies propose concessions such as divestments. If competition concerns remain, EU regulators can open an in-depth probe lasting several months before deciding to approve or block mergers.
The commission, the EU’s executive arm, Airbus and Leonardo declined to comment. A Thales spokesperson didn’t immediately respond.
Last month, Von der Leyen EU Space Access Plan to Pool Launcher Demand, Von Der Leyen Says Project Bromo as an example of an industrial champion Europe needs to lead in the future space economy. Her comments drew criticism from some lawmakers in the bloc’s parliament.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Teresa Ribera said public backing of the plan by the commission president “doesn’t mean we are not going to apply and to enforce our own regulation.”
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u/Shiirooo 15h ago
France need first to approve that
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u/thet-bes France 13h ago
France and Italy are the ones pushing for it. It's OHB that was very publicly unhappy because the two big institutional satellites maker are merging together.
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u/Better-Compote399 Sweden 17h ago
Great news, with the whole Musk thing we need to divest in a very quick fashion from US technology so great that somethings being done. Lets hope its not hampered by sluggish bureacracy so we can get this thing going!
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u/AcademicSand1034 10h ago
It would be super valuable for the EU to have a real competitor to SpaceX and Amazon in this space. But it seems unlikely that a partnership of these three companies would be able to move very fast at all, even if they get regulatory clearance. These are companies used to slow moving bureaucratic product development
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u/Valuable-Flounder692 United Kingdom 13h ago
Better late than never keep America out of Europe you know what they are capable of!
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17h ago
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u/DancingCrazyCows 17h ago
Yes, but...
Every once in a while, when something is deemed important enough, the commission decide to lessen, sidestep or assist with the bureaucracy. Once they do that, things tend to move pretty ducking fast.
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17h ago
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u/Disastrous-Roof-2135 16h ago
The EU is far from perfect but it is the only realistic balwark against existential threats to all of its individual nations from the US as Russia's proxy, Russia as China's proxy and China itself.
Alone we are fucked. Together we are strong and, as a massive Europhile, I'm very open to an open discussion involving all perspectives on how we improve the EU and have a grown up debate about immigration ideally once the Putinbots aren't poisoning the well.
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u/Candayence United Kingdom 15h ago
It's NATO that defends peace in Europe, with or without America.
The few non-NATO, EU members, are quite frankly irrelevant to any continental defence.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 11h ago
The EU Commission loves to try and fast-track proposals that harm privacy rights. If they stopped being evil then they could fast track things like this instead.
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u/OkPrinciple37 17h ago
Can’t come fast enough - the US and its oligarchy can never be trusted or relied upon again.
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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) 17h ago
Even if the crazy people get ousted, what's stopping them from electing them again?
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u/hypercomms2001 16h ago
As Europe properly combines. It has resources for exceeding the United States, and Russia... It has just been lacking in confidence....
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u/rich84easy 16h ago
What resources does Europe have to exceed the US? For starters, it has barely any gas or oil. But I’m open to hearing what else
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u/katonda 15h ago
where we're going, we don't need that much oil and gas. 'Cuz we're going forwards in time, not backwards.
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u/rich84easy 15h ago
Okay, care to give details of this forward in time?
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u/katonda 13h ago
yeah it's called lowering reliance on fossil fuels.
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u/rich84easy 13h ago
Everybody knows that, it’s the feasibility of them. You can convert all cars to electric and oil consumption will only go down by less than 30%
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u/SweetAlyssumm 14h ago
SpaceX rockets use kerosene and methane-based fuels. Maybe you are close to that hydrogen breakthrough you've been working on it your backyard?
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u/Tribe303 11h ago
Well hello there Europe! Whatcha up to later tonight? 😘🇨🇦
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u/rich84easy 11h ago
Go build the pipeline to move oil to eastern Canada if you wanna sell it to Europe.
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u/Tribe303 10h ago
No one spends billions on a pipeline without a paying customer first. We also don't need a pipeline to Eastern Canada. It will end at the Port of Churchill, a deep water port in Manitoba on Hudsons Bay. That's the giant Bay/hole in the middle of Canada. Thanks to global warming and all of the icebreakers we are building, its going to be open to shipping all year around.
Interesting that you can only think of oil. We have EVERYTHING. We just need the investments to dig it out of the ground.
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u/Soggy_Weather_2170 10h ago
Pounding fascists as every Saturday.
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u/Tribe303 10h ago
Oh, can we join in the fun? We were pretty good at it last time!
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u/Soggy_Weather_2170 9h ago
Oh it's an activity for the whole family!
👊🧑👊🏻🧑🏻👊🏼🧑🏼👊🏽🧑🏾👊🏿🧑🏿
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
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u/Tribe303 8h ago
Fun fact: My grandfather killed at least two Nazis that he was aware of as he cleaned out the Netherlands for the Canadian Army in house to house combat during WW2. Shot one across the street and stabbed another with a bayonet. Instead of going house to house, we Canadians would rig up explosives in rows of townhouses and blow a new door in the walls to avoid the snipers outside, to advance to the next apartment though the new hole. This also avoided the booby trapped doors left by the Germans. My grandfather was a Canadian Engineer explosives expert. His nickname was Doormaker. 🤣
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u/Soggy_Weather_2170 8h ago
My gramps grew up a white slave (Schwabenkinder) was drafted for WW1 made it to Oberfeldwebel, which was as far as you could get being of such low birth. He got the iron cross and made it back. He was then drafted again together with my oldest uncle for WW2. When he was sent home to recover after an injury he was informed by the local party chairman that my uncle had fallen. When despite all the shit he must've seen and done he cried in front of the guy the Nazi party official haf nothing better to say than that he should be proud that his son had died for Hitler and the fatherland. My gramps smacked him real bad and kicked him out yelling insults about "the feckless Corporal Asshole" (a code for Hitler). In the very next night he was picked up by the Gestapo and interrogated. He didn't budge, and they were unable to find any witnesses for the incident, so they did let him go because he was a distinguished Soldier with the Iron Cross after all. He got ordered into a penal company shortly after and was sent westward. He then killed his officer and returned to Germany dodging American and German troops. After a short incarceration the French released him, because they found the documents describing his the circumstances of his arrest.
And that's how he became the first Major of my home village under French occupation.
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u/Tribe303 7h ago
Interesting story! My other grandfather never left Canada. He was a phone company lineman, installing telephone poles and lines when the war started. He was drafted into the airforce and spent the entire war installing the phone lines up and down both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, going to the new radar stations that were being installed. His only war story was they saw a Nazi Uboat off the coast of Quebec once. They called it in but it disappeared after ~10 minutes.
Fun fact: I think it's a good symbol for change and friendship that Canada's new 12 submarines fleet are being made in Germany. We're getting Uboats! Cool!
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u/BBQCopter 10h ago
Good luck, Starlink is currently the most "trusted and relied upon" internet provider on Earth right now.
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u/WhisperingHammer 5h ago
Aside from the fact that it is no longer trusted at all since it has been shown to be shut off at the worst of times.
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u/hurdeehurr 2h ago
That's starshield not starlink. Starlink isn't approved for war and starshield is controlled by the US DOD.
So if you're using it for war you're breaking TOS in the first place.
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u/Hyperty 15h ago
Whatever happened to Globalization?
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u/Jane_Doe_32 Europe 15h ago
It only works when one nation is far more dominant than the rest or when nations act in good faith, neither of which is the case right now.
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u/Mysterious-Ad1885 17h ago
Il faut accéder à l'indépendance totale vis à vis des puissances étrangères hostiles
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u/DirectorImaginary376 2h ago
Yep, let's watch them blow up on the launch pads in French Guyana again.
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u/Any-Original-6113 17h ago
This is good news for Europe and its allies. I hope the project will continue to accelerate.
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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) 17h ago
Good to hear. Now let's hope nothing goes wrong along the way.
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u/yetiflask 7h ago
LOL. The whole of Europe can't even come close to matching SpaceX. Nice try though.
You guys can't even get some AliExpress fingerprint scanners working at your borders, but you'd beat Starlink. LOL
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u/Zhukov-74 The Netherlands 17h ago
That would solve the satellite problem but we still need more European launch vehicles.
Ariane 6, Vega-C and Spectrum are not enough.