EU seeks space alliance to defend against U.S. and Chinese ambitions

FILE PHOTO: EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton attends a news conference on the EU's cybersecurity strategy, in Brussels, Belgium December 16, 2020. Kenzo Tribouillard/Pool via REUTERS

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will pursue a more aggressive European space strategy to prevent being muscled out by U.S. and Chinese launcher technology, setting up an European alliance with industry this year, a EU official said on Tuesday.

Over the past decades, Europe has sought to build independent access to space from U.S. and Russian pioneers to help its industry, with successes such as Ariane rockets or GPS-rival satnav Galileo.