BRUSSELS — The European Union is trying to stop space from turning into a junkyard. The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a new Space Act that seeks to dial up regulatory oversight of satellite operators — including requiring them to tackle their impact on space debris and pollution, or face significant fines. There are more than 10,000 satellites now in orbit and growing space junk to match. In recent years, more companies — most notably Elon Musk’s Starlink — have ventured into low-Earth orbit, from where stronger telecommunication connections can be established but which requires more satellites to ensure full coverage. “Space is congested and contested,” a Commission official said ahead of Wednesday’s proposal in a briefing with reporters. The official was granted anonymity to disclose details ahead of the formal presentation. The EU executive wants to set up a database to track objects circulating in space; make authorization processes clearer to help companies launch satellites and provide services in Europe; and force national governments to give regulators oversight powers. The Space Act proposal would also require space companies to have launch safety and end-of-life disposal plans, take extra steps to limit space debris, light and radio pollution, and calculate the environmental footprint of their operations. Mega and giga constellations, which are networks of at least 100 and 1,000 spacecraft, respectively, face extra rules to coordinate orbit traffic and avoid collisions. “It’s starting to look like a jungle up there. We need to intervene,” said French liberal lawmaker Christophe Grudler. “Setting traffic rules for satellites might not sound as sexy as sending people to Mars. But that’s real, that’s now and that has an impact on our daily lives.” Under the proposal, operators would also have to run cybersecurity risk assessments, introduce cryptographic and encryption-level protection, and are encouraged to share more information with corporate rivals to fend off cyberattacks. Breaches of the rules could result in fines of up to twice the profits gained or losses avoided as a result of the infringement, or, where these amounts cannot be determined, up to 2 percent of total worldwide annual turnover. Satellites exclusively used for defense or national security are excluded from the law. THE MUSK PROBLEM The Space Act proposal comes as the EU increasingly sees a homegrown satellite industry as crucial to its connectivity, defense and sovereignty ambitions. Musk’s dominance in the field has become a clear vulnerability for Europe. His Starlink network has showcased at scale how thousands of satellites can reach underserved areas and fix internet voids, but it has also revealed his hold over Ukraine’s wartime communication, highlighting the danger of relying on a single, foreign player. Top lawmakers in the European Parliament, including Grudler, earlier this month advocated for a “clearly ring-fenced budget of at least €60 billion” devoted to space policy, while French President Emmanuel Macron last week called for the next EU budget to earmark more money to boost Europe’s space sector. That’s crucial “if we want to stay in the game of the great international powers,” he said shortly after the French government announced it would ramp up its stake in Eutelsat, a Franco-British satellite company and Starlink rival. The Space Act proposal introduces additional requirements for players from outside the EU that operate in the European market, unless their home country is deemed to have equivalent oversight by the Commission, which could be the case for the U.S. They will also have to appoint a legal representative in the bloc. The proposal is set to apply from 2030 and will now head to the Council of the EU, where governments hash out their position, and the European Parliament for negotiations on the final law. Aude van den Hove contributed reporting.

BRUSSELS ― European leaders on Friday rallied to defend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance subjected him to a tirade of withering and infantilizing abuse in the Oval Office. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” In what may prove to a significant turning point in the tottering post-war Western alliance between Europe and the United States, the Europeans pushed back against Washington’s increasing alignment with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Trump’s browbeating of Zelenskyy. “There is an aggressor, which is Russia and a people who have suffered aggression, which is Ukraine,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, hitting back at Trump’s suggestions of equivalence between the two sides. “You have to respect those who have been fighting since the beginning because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, for their children, and for the security of Europe.” Macron also stressed that the U.S. was not the only country to support Kyiv but noted that it was also backed up by European countries, Canada and Japan. Germany’s almost-certain next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, struck a similar tone addressing a tweet directly to “Dear Volodymyr” in which he vowed to stand with Ukraine “in good and in testing times.” European leaders on Friday rallied to defend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. | Tetiana Dzhafarova/Getty Images Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sent a message to Zelenskyy insisting “Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” while the office of Sweden’s prime minister said: “You are not only fighting for your freedom but also for all of Europe’s.” The Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia and Lithuania all sent similar notes of support. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted: “Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President@ZelenskyyUa.”

The U.K. and the EU are finally talking again. But the City of London is still out in the cold. Despite being the U.K.’s most globally important industry, accounting for 12 percent of GDP and providing 2.5 million jobs, the finance sector is stuck on the sidelines even as relations with the EU thaw. The two sides are rekindling their friendship as the new Labour government in Britain pushes to improve tense relations via a Brexit “reset.” That drive culminated in a first meeting between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels Oct. 2, with plans to keep talks going. It should be a perfect opportunity to win better access for the City of London to the EU’s financial industry; since Brexit, the “square mile” has been cut off from the continent almost entirely. Yet the mammoth industry didn’t get so much as a mention in the October joint statement from Starmer and von der Leyen, and U.K. and EU finance chiefs haven’t dared raise the topic in recent meetings either. It’s not the first time the City has been brushed aside in Brexit talks. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who formulated the U.K.’s 2020 Brexit deal, left financial services out of his pact with Brussels. Now it appears Keir Starmer is doing the same. ALL TALK? That’s despite the high potential for bargaining. The EU is keen for a youth mobility agreement that would enable younger citizens to live and work on either side of the English Channel for a limited time. Starmer has so far snubbed an offer from Brussels, but it’s viewed as a potential concession in negotiations that would allow the new Labour PM to push his own priorities. The EU’s youth mobility offer in fact might have been a chance to push for better access for the finance industry, which in 2022 produced £278 billion in economic output, 12 percent of the U.K.’s GDP and £100 billion in tax revenue. Instead, Starmer looks set to prioritize easing Brexit bottlenecks in other areas: a veterinary deal, a defense pact, and recognition of professional qualifications. To keep up the positive chatter, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will also travel to Brussels, likely in December, to attend a meeting of eurozone finance ministers. | Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images Starmer has ruled out rejoining the bloc or the EU’s single market or customs union, so any attempt to discuss financial services access would be a waste of breath, according to Jonathan Hill, a Conservative peer who served as the U.K.’s financial services commissioner in Brussels between 2014 and 2016 before resigning after the Brexit vote. “The government’s red line on the Single Market rules out any prospect of progress on  financial services,” Hill said in an emailed comment. “And even if there is an improvement in relations, which the government is sensibly trying to achieve, financial services would be the very last issue on which the EU side would ever move. To ask for anything on it would therefore inevitably only lead to rejection.” As relations improve, the two sides have started talking more about financial services in a technical forum, hoping to steadily improve the mood and find areas of cooperation.  To keep up the positive chatter, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will also travel to Brussels, likely in December, to attend a meeting of eurozone finance ministers. But amid all that noise, silence reigns on the best way to improve access for the City, the second largest global exporter of financial services (behind only the U.S.). In a sign of just how little the square mile is now part of the U.K.’s demands on Brexit, Reeves did not raise the issue of market access at a September meeting with the EU’s financial services chief, Mairead McGuinness. While the meeting was friendly and cordial, according to officials, the discussions centered on shared problems such as deepening capital markets and working together on sanctions, and the U.K. did not raise the topic of Brexit barriers for the City. “The financial services sector is critical to promoting growth in the U.K. and in Europe,” said a Treasury spokesperson. “We are meeting with our European partners in order to reset relations, including how we can work together to strengthen cooperation in this important sector.” McGuinness told a POLITICO event last week it would be “churlish” for the two sides not to speak. Yet she made clear that financial services “weren’t part” of broader trade agreements — and argued there was no going back to the way the financial system worked before Britain’s departure from the bloc. “One of the areas where Europe is not and wasn’t sufficiently resilient is around financial services,” she said. “We didn’t have to worry about it when the U.K. was a member, and we’ve done things to try [to] deal with that lack of resilience.” DÉJÀ VU  This is not the first time the City hasn’t got a look-in — despite the importance of the finance industry to the U.K. economy, jobs and exports. As Johnson’s government was negotiating its deal with Brussels, the City hoped for much better market access — whether through some kind of mutual recognition of financial rules or by the EU’s deeming London “equivalent” to its own regulations. The City has adapted, and is now resigned to life outside the bloc. | Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images But that hasn’t happened — making it more difficult for London firms to keep serving EU clients. Only the U.K.’s powerful clearinghouses have the same unfettered access, called “equivalence,” to the bloc’s markets after Brexit. “We wanted equivalence and we didn’t get equivalence,” said Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation. “We’re not going to be able to turn the clock back to that — it should have happened at the time, but it’s not going to happen now.” The City has adapted, and is now resigned to life outside the bloc. While it lost some EU business, Brexit hasn’t dented exports to Europe or led to the feared mass job exodus from London. So when it comes to a Brexit reset, the square mile will be watching from the sidelines.