Ariane 6 will restore independent European access to space. Here’s what that means

As far back as December 2013, the European Council called for the member states of the European Union to develop their defence capabilities and so enhance the “strategic autonomy” of the EU. Since then, the idea that the term encapsulates has come up time and again.  In 2016, it was made part of the EU’s Global Strategy doctrine. It was promoted again in late 2020, championed in particular by France. And it was the thread that ran through Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union speech of 2023.