Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxembourg are set to join EU SST Partnership

Congratulations to Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxembourg! With the adoption of its Implementing Decision C(2025)8684 on 17 December 2025, the Commission greenlighted their applications to join the EU SST Partnership. This is another major milestone for the EU SST subcomponent, an important initiative to keep space assets safe from in-orbit collisions in light of increasing space activities.

The EU SST Partnership is a prime exampleof EU cooperation: 15 EU Member States network their space assets and work together to safeguard more than 600 satellites from collisions in space and inform numerous partners on in-orbit fragmentations and uncontrolled re-entries of space objects into the Earth's atmosphere.

Now, the EU SST Partnership is growing: Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxembourg declared their interest in joining the EU SST Partnership in late 2024. Consequently, the Commission adopted an Implementing Decision in June outlining the procedure for new members to join the EU SST Partnership. The four Member States submitted their applications over the summer which the Commission deemed eligible in September.

The Commission Implementing Decision now makes it official: Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxembourg are set to becomemembers of the EU SST Partnership. Such efficient timing was made possible thanks to close cooperation and coordination between EU Member States, DG DEFIS and others, thereby allowing to achieve several milestones in such short sequences.

The Decision also confirms that the contributions from the four newest members will bring an added value to the existing EU SST system, thereby further fostering EU non-dependence and autonomy in space surveillance and tracking and boosting space safety and sustainability made in Europe.

Upcoming milestones for the EU SST Partnership include:

• signature of relevant EU SST Agreements to include the four new members
• conclusion of a Grant extension to co-finance EU SST activities until mid-2028

Background

EU SST is a subcomponent of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) component of the EU Space Programme. It safeguards space assets, especially EU Space Programme satellites such as Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus, GOVSATCOM and in the future IRIS², along with the space assets of EU Member States and other space operators.

EU SST uses a network of ground-based sensors capable of surveying and tracking space objects and processing capabilities aimed at improving, operating, and providing data, information and services on space objects orbiting the Earth. This helps to mitigate the risk of a collision between space assets and other spacecraft and debris, in-orbit fragmentations and uncontrolled re-entries of space objects into the Earth's atmosphere.

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