Representatives of the main Italian and Spanish companies in the space sector held a meeting in Madrid on April 28, organized by Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino, where everyone emphasized the importance of enhancing collaboration in a crucial area for the security and technological sovereignty of the continent.
Taking advantage of the presence of a COMINT (Communications Intelligence) mission from the Italian Armed Forces —led by General Luigi Riggio, Minister Plenipotentiary Lamberto Moruzzi, and Lieutenant Colonel Nicola Donati— the ambassador convened an event in which a high-level delegation from Leonardo, led by the general director of its space division, Massimo Comparini, and the CEO of Telespazio, Gabriele Pieralli, participated.
On the Spanish side —in addition to the director of the Spanish Space Agency, Juan Carlos Cortés, with whom the Italian institutional delegation held a bilateral meeting— the CEO of GMV, Jesús Serrano; the general director of Indra Espacio, Miguel Ángel Panduro; the CEO of Satlantis, Juan Tomás Hernani; and the CEO of Telespazio Ibérica, Carlos Fernández de la Peña attended.
They were joined by representatives from other 20 Spanish companies representative of a strategic sector, as their activity impacts both in terms of Spanish investments in Italy and qualified employment.
At the beginning of the day, Ambassador Buccino highlighted the crucial moment the European space sector is going through, which aspires to technological sovereignty, security, and to overcome the current model. A model that, he recalled, “has significant strengths but remains too fragmented.”
Referring to the potential and challenges of European projects like IRIS2, as well as the need to achieve a balance between European synergies and industrial benefits for each country, the ambassador emphasized the importance of creating a European group that is active in all sectors, from Earth observation to space exploration.
The ambassador then focused on outlining the multiple collaboration opportunities between Italy and Spain. Among them are those offered by the presence of numerous Italian professors and researchers in Spanish universities and research centers, as well as high-level technical personnel in the sector’s industries or in European agencies like the EU Satellite Centre (SATCEN) and the EU Space Agency (EUSPA) in Spain.
Italy and Spain signed two memorandums of understanding in 2024, one for cooperation in peaceful space activities and another on bilateral collaboration in basic research. In this framework, General Riggio and Engineer Comparini, accompanied by the ambassador, held high-level meetings with Spanish authorities and visited the headquarters of EUSPA and SATCEN.
Finally, the Embassy organized a B2B session at the General Consulate of Italy in Madrid that allowed for numerous meetings with newly established small and medium-sized Spanish companies, to which Leonardo and its subsidiary Telespazio Ibérica confirmed their utmost availability to assess collaboration opportunities.
In fact, Leonardo’s mission in Madrid has highlighted the solid business collaboration that already exists between Italy and Spain, but above all the numerous new opportunities that arise in the bilateral and multilateral space sector, particularly in the fields of Earth observation and geoinformation.