Opening speech by Commissioner Kubilius at the second EU-African Union Dialogue on Space

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Opening speech by Commissioner Kubilius at the second EU-African Union Dialogue on Space

24.03.2026 Press and information team of the Delegation to the African Union

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Dear Commissioner,

Distinguished guests,

Dear friends from the African Union,

It's a big honour to welcome you here to the Berlaymont, in these challenging and dangerous times it's even more important to work together, based on shared values, mutual respect and commitment to multilateralism.

Today the European Union is faced with big challenges and threats, including the threat of aggression from the world's largest remaining colonial empire, Russia.

Until I was in my thirties, I lived under the occupation of that empire. And so did half of Europe. So deterring Russian aggression is a key goal.

Stability in Middle East and Gulf region also havebecome crucially important.

And now we understand the Americans are shifting their own security focus away from the European continent.

And that is why we need to build our own strategic capabilities.

Space is vitally important for our security, defence and strategic autonomy.

But the old challenges and old priorities remain. Like climate change, food security, and digital transformation.

Europe and Africa need to continue to work on these important challenges together.

And space is a key dimension.

The African Union is a strategic partner for the European Union. African achievements in space are longstanding and transformative. More than 21 African countries now have space programmes, with more than 60 African satellites in space. And at least 120 more to be launched by 2030.

Every year, African countries spend 500 million dollars on space. That directly benefits people on the ground.

And Africa's space capacities are only increasing.

We have already been working with you on Space for many years. I want to intensify our cooperation on space, based on trust, shared interests and mutual benefit, in win-win partnerships.

On all aspects of our space programme: Navigation, observation, connectivity.

So first, satellite navigation - Galileo.

We boost the accuracy of Galileo signals with our navigation overlay system EGNOS. EGNOS improves the accuracy of navigation signals over Europe, similar to other regional systems across the world.

And Africa is now implementing ANGA, the African Navigation with Geostationary Augmentation - to boost satellite signals over Africa, making them more accurate and reliable.

And we are supporting Africa's air traffic manager ASENCA in this task. Because civil aviation is global and needs to rely on a seamless service from interoperable systems.

Galileo is available all over Africa. For free. And we want as many people as possible to be able to use it: businesses, entrepreneurs, authorities.

That should now be the focus of our partnership.

Second: Earth Observation - Copernicus.

Free satellite images of the Earth, shared with researchers, authorities and businesses around the world.

And Africa is making Earth observation even better.

You can be proud of GMES and Africa. An African Earth observation success story: using observation data for local African needs; involving more than 100 African institutions, public and private; creating new jobs and supporting innovative business and public services. Building capacities.

Thanks to your data, we can improve our modelling and forecasting on the state of the Earth's climate.

So this is a major contribution to humanity!

Building on this success we launched together the Africa-EU Space Partnership Programme. To strengthen early warning systems against floods, droughts and storms. And to support the Green Transition.

Africa has a lot to offer Europe: in situ data, from ground stations in Africa is essential for us, helps to calibrate and validate our satellites and complements earth observation data. Helps to fill coverage gaps.

Thanks to African data, we have a more complete and more precise picture. We know better what is happening on the ground. And that is crucially important to monitor climate change, agriculture and the environment.

So we have set up a great European -African partnerships on data.

And I want us to make these partnerships stronger. Based on mutual respect and reciprocity. With full respect for African data ownership and governance.

Third, connectivity.

We are now building IRIS2 - secure broadband internet connectivity through space, for all corners of Europe and Africa.

We are making good progress and I expect first services to start in 2031. IRIS2 will bring super fast, space based connectivity wherever you are. Even on the top of the Mont Blanc or Kilimanjaro.

This will totally transform our continents.

We have already awarded three IRIS2 projects in Africa to prepare the ground, worth 30 million euro. And more projects will come this year and next.

African priorities must be central to these projects.

In short:

Our cooperation on space based navigation, observation and connectivity brings real benefits. To nearly 2 billion people on our two continents.

And our cooperation on space is becoming only more urgent.

First, because our world is becoming more uncertain and dangerous. In this geopolitical context, we share an interest in open, rules-based, and secure use of space.

What the EU can offer our partners is more than money, technology and capacity.

We offer reliability, predictability, and certainty. Exactly what is needed to build space capacity.

Space capabilities are built in not days but in decades.

Second, our EU - Africa partnership is urgent because we are at the start of a space revolution. 50,000 satellites will be launched in the next ten years - more than twice as many as in the space age up till now.

The space economy will triple in size. This is a revolution like the train, the car, the plane, the internet or artificial intelligence. Together, both Europe and Africa can be winners in this space revolution.

Space is big enough, for both of us.

Together, we can lift each other up, to higher orbits.

So, let's get to work!

I look forward to the discussion.