1 Status of the German Draft Legislation on Space Activities Dr. Bernhard Schmidt-Tedd, DLR Project 2001 Plus Workshop „Towards a Harmonised Approach for National Space Legislation in Europe“, Berlin, January 29 th /30 th 2004

2 Emergence of private activities under German jurisdiction lead to question whether Germany is still in the position to fulfil its international obligations (UN Treaties and Principles on Outer Space) Joint examination of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and German Aerospace Center (late 1999) “Fact Finding Missions” to UK, Sweden, Russia and studies of the US and Australian Space Law Meeting of all ministries concerned (Spring 2000) based hereon a Project Group within DLR elaborated a first draft of a German Nation Space law, which is, for the time being, only an internal discussion paper between DLR and BMBF - interactivity with Project Legal Framework for the Commercial Use of Outer Space Now the Minister of Education and Research has to approve the draft and take further initiatives

3 limited to such provisions necessary to fulfil the international obligation of Germany (mainly Art. VI OST) - “law executing the Space Treaties” other questions of relevance to space activities, such as frequencies assignment, export control, restriction of handling earth observation data, should not be dealt with content: (1) authorisation and control of space activities, (2) registration of space objects, (3) implementing regulations, (4) liability and insurance, (5) final provisions - in total 20/25 articles Important objective is to foster commercial space activities -> clear and reliable regulatory framework, no over-regulation, financial support if necessary

4 harmonisation approach at least with other European Governments, which are drafting national space laws (France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium) especially: - duration planned to be in line with UK - foreign authorisations should be accepted if fulfilment of international obligations of Germany is assured - technical safety evaluation: until now, no reference to ECSS or other standards in the draft, but still under discussion - limitation of indemnification (amount tbd.) - compulsory third party insurance required for authorisation MPL plus cap, amount tbd.)

5 Minister of Education and Research has to launch the legislative process further meetings of all ministries concerned also with view to its harmonisation with other National Space Legislation (in particular in Europe), the Project 2001 “building blocks” and “Project 2001 Plus Workshop on Harmonisation of National Space Legislation in Europe” may be a basis for that representatives of the German space industry will be further involved in the process