Year XXXVIII, Number 2, July 2025

Emanuele Itta
Member, MFE.

Approved by the Italian Government Cabinet on June 20, 2024, and submitted to the Parliament by the Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni herself together with the Minister for Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso on September 10, 2024, the bill on space economy referred as “Ddl Spazio” is going to be back on the main political agenda soon. Deadlines for filing amendments have been made opportunely slip, and the ground for the parliamentary discussion has been laid. The text of the bill is designed to centralize decision-making powers in the hands of the Prime Minister, who will be appointed “responsible authority”, thus will be able to decide “on the use of extra- atmospheric space, including the moon and other celestial bodies”.

Article 23 of the bill is a perfect bridge for Elon Musk, as it deals with “public-private partnerships” between the state and specialized space economy operators. The whole section is publicised as a remedy to the Italian digital divide, problems concerning under-connected areas and satellite coverage, all in terms of complementarity and global connectivity.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) destined €1.5 billions to improve cable connectivity across the country. This found is the exact sum the Italian Government is reportedly negotiating with Musk for his services. Newly appointed Minister for the NRRP Tommaso Foti assured that in a couple of months he would have been able to thoroughly assess this aspect of the European plan, since “it is important to ensure the service and implement it with the forces available and put in places. Criminal is to not provide the service”. The fate of the entire fund granted by the NRRP then would be entirely taken care by the “American friend” the Italian Government is working for.

This move would surely question what has already been done so far regarding the fund and its goals and could cause harm to operators who previously made commitments taking into account what was the original plan laid by the European Union, not anticipating Musk.

Article 25 of the bill introduce the concept of a “national transmission capacity reserve” intended to operate through satellite communications operated “exclusively by entities belonging to the European Union or NATO”. This wording brings the attention on the role of the USA, therefore Donald Trump and his relationship with Elon Musk.

The Italian Government is making no effort to hide the conflict of interests emerging between the bill at hand and the European project “IRIS2”: this is a €10 billion investment (€6 billion from public sources, €4 billion from private ones) with which the European Union aims to create an alternative to the Starlink system, meeting those goals that Musk’s companies are proved unable to guarantee. IRIS2 is managed by the SpaceRise consortium formed by Eutelsat, Hispasat and Ses.

“Ddl Spazio” establishes a “fund for the space economy” aimed at financing the Italian space sector. Given its galactic ambitions, the endowment is minimal: €20 million for 2024, and €35 million for 2025. The goal chased by Giorgia Meloni’s government is to take part into the great “commercialisation of space”, but with only €55 million it appears difficult to have a relevant role. However, with a strong alliance with Starlink and using NRRP’s money perhaps it is possible, with all due respect to the European Union as long as everything remains, formally at least, on the communication sector.

Reality is different. The real stakes are others: it is the future of conflicts that will be in space.

The commercialization of space is the programmatic formulation of those who, using space as “res nullius” only want people to barely look at the finger, but certainly not at the moon!

The militarization of space has been underway for some time now, and it marks the new frontier of global conflicts. The United States of America, with their Space Force, are leading this transition. With countries such as Russia and China following closely, space is turning into a field of strategic and military competition.

Humankind’s space age has begun, and it’s not at its dawn anymore: the pervasiveness of extra atmospheric activities can be traced in everyday life, from GPS to weather forecasting, from satellite’s role in military operation’s conduction to satellite imagery for intelligence purposes, even if many would have the public believe that space is not the physical locus of the most advanced conflict. This is why, using the name “commercialization” and publicly dealing only with communication purposes, the militarization of space as a concept is not publicly debated.

Each country makes its own law of space. Why? Each country makes its own law of the land. Why? Each country has its own law of the sea. Why? Is the sky the new frontier of colonization?

The universe as a “nobody’s thing” fuels the cosmic delusion of Anthropocene capital, not so much as a commercialization of communication services, (which are bound to worsen for ordinary mortals with the anarchic and overcrowded space), but as an “ultimate weapon” for the enemy.

No communication. The masters of a “global black-out” can decide the end. Whoever comes first to control the space puts others in line, with the power of silence them.

Delirium, the one about space, which, in turn, fuels the sub-delirium about defence and weapons on Earth. It is increasingly clear how a part of existing weapon systems, if employed, would be enough to not give anyone on the planet a chance of survival. Anyone but the ones with the spaceship and the capability to go elsewhere! It is a duty of European Union to understand and expose those delusions.

In fact, if it does not want to end up dissolved (or find itself boiled like the frog, according to the metaphor), the European Union must achieve real common defence and realize the IRIS2 project. Preliminary to that has to be the deal with two world problems on which the future stands: – The issue of nuclear disarmament; – The end of the concept of space as “res nullius”.

The first question, nuclear disarmament, is sitting on a standstill, as the world’s nuclear powers are failing to agree on new measures and many of the major nuclear arms control agreements signed in past years are not being renewed and allowed to expire, when not terminated early.

If the European Union does not take action on non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, bringing together countries and institutions involved in order to encourage security-related policies and dialogue, who else will?

The same applies to space matters.

In the words of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas “as far as space is concerned, in a broader sense I think it’s something we really need to discuss and explore, because there are a lot of things happening in space that have an effect on our daily lives. […] And it is not fully agreed in international law how the rules apply in space and also in cyberspace. I think we should discuss with like- minded countries about the development of international law so that the rights of countries are protected on a larger scale”.

Quo vadis Missile Technology Control Regime II (MTCR II)? It is a question posed by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as well. The current MTCR I include only 35 countries, and multilateral missile non-proliferation efforts are at a standstill.

In conclusion, if the European Union does not bring nuclear disarmament on the world’s political agenda as a principle, as well as the issue of the space as “res nullius”, the space race will be a colonization race, and in the West soon there will be no more natives, nor anywhere else!