Space leaders meet at ESA’s High-Level Forum

The event was held at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France and hosted about 80 senior representatives from European industry, ESA Member State delegations, the European Commission and ESA. Participants included CEOs and senior leaders from large system integrators, midcaps, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and emerging space companies. As in previous years, the invitation-only format was designed to enable direct and open discussion between ESA and the European space industrial ecosystem.

From ambition to implementation

With the decisions of the 2025 ESA Council at Ministerial Level now moving into implementation, the discussion focused on delivery: how to convert Europe’s increased space ambition into operational capability, sustainable industrial capacity and stronger global competitiveness.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher underlined the need to execute and deliver CM25 while continuing to adapt ESA to a rapidly changing space sector and geopolitical environment. His presentation highlighted the building blocks for Europe’s space future: funding and investment; a quantum leap in innovation; de-bureaucratisation and de-fragmentation – alongside stronger trust, transparency and collaboration between ESA, Member States and industry.

Lorena Boix Alonso, Deputy Director-General for Space at the European Commission’s DG DEFIS, also addressed the forum, reflecting the wider European institutional dimension of the discussion.

Industry priorities

Reports from the Large System Integrator, Midcap and SME Fora, together with the Young European Enterprises Syndicate for Space, set out the industrial starting point. Across the different parts of the ecosystem, recurring themes included long-term demand visibility, access to finance and sustainable profitability, production scale-up, critical supply-chain dependencies, skills, access to programmes and the need for simpler and faster implementation.

Four areas for joint action

Four round-table discussions examined how ESA and industry can turn those priorities into practical action.

– Space security and resilience

Participants discussed how national, European and commercial capabilities can work together more effectively. Particular emphasis was placed on interoperability from the outset, common and open standards, federation of assets while preserving national ownership, resilience of critical technologies and suppliers, and faster in-orbit demonstration and validation of technologies that enable integrated architectures.

– Commercialisation and market development

The discussion focused on the conditions needed to move from successful demonstrations to recurring services and sustainable markets. Industry called for greater visibility of institutional demand, earlier involvement of end users, competitive and co-funded approaches where appropriate, and more predictable European launch capacity. The debate also showed that there is no single route to competitiveness: views ranged from stronger competition and private risk-taking to the need for longer-term institutional commitments and industrial stability.

– Delivering CM25 - a joint task

The third round table addressed the practical challenge of absorbing the increased workload generated by CM25 alongside growing EU and national demand. Discussion covered workforce and skills, supply-chain readiness, technology maturity, proportionate requirements and review processes, and the financial conditions needed to deliver complex programmes without weakening the industrial base. The shared objective was faster implementation while maintaining mission assurance and sustainable industrial performance.

– Strengthening capacity and competitiveness

The final round table looked at how Europe can scale from bespoke project-based production towards greater industrialisation and recurring production. Participants highlighted critical dependencies in components, technologies and raw materials; the investment required for digitalisation and new production capacity; and the importance of multi-year demand visibility. A substantial debate concerned the right balance between competition and industrial scale – with broad agreement that Europe ultimately needs competitive, reliable and resilient solutions, while using limited public resources strategically.

Conclusions and follow-up

Christine Klein, ESA Director of Controlling, Finance and Operational Procurement, closed the forum by consolidating the main conclusions and follow-up priorities.

Across the four discussions, a common direction emerged: more predictable demand, earlier visibility for industry, faster and more proportionate ESA processes, more reuse and standardisation where appropriate, resilient supply chains and industrial conditions that allow companies of all sizes to invest, scale and compete.

These messages will now feed into the continuing structured dialogue between ESA and industry and into the implementation of programmes and procurement following CM25. The High-Level Forum remains an important point of exchange between ESA, Member States and the full European space industrial ecosystem - not only to identify challenges, but to agree where joint action can make Europe stronger in space.