With China, India, and NASA getting serious about returning humanity to the Moon (and beyond), France is trying to motivate its European neighbors to collaborate their efforts lest they be left behind in the space race.
(Space.com) Among the 50 proposals:
- Sanctions should be imposed on any European government that does not give preference to European launch vehicles for its government civil and military satellites.
- France should begin preparing nuclear-powered satellites to permit deep-space exploration, using expertise at the French Atomic Energy Commission and in French industry.
- Europe's heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket should be made capable of launching astronauts within five years.
Although it's good to see France rounding up the Europe to take the space race seriously, penalizing nations for outsourcing their launch vehicles would probably do more to split the group than unify it.
What makes the alt.space industry great is the ability to choose where to do business from (e.g. Space Adventures, and American company launches from Russia).
If France tries to impose some sort of weird embargo on outside competition, they may be stuck with an undeveloped and expensive space industry that no one wants to ride in.
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As a French, I can explain the following proposition :
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As you know, the US public launch marcket is protected. US government satelites can exclusively be launch by US launchers.
And that proposition is a response to this situation.
But frankly i think it's not necesary because European companies are exploiting Ariane V and Soyouz which are cheaper than the american launchers.