EU inaugurates first mainland satellite launch port

Esrange has already been used as a liftoff site for sounding rockets since 1966, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esrange, so upgrading to orbital launches really isn't that much of a stretch, given that both types of missions have to punch through the same environmental conditions.
 
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A base deep in the Swedish forest is part of Europe's hope to compete in the space race

Deep in the Swedish forest, where reindeer roam and scientists ski in winter, lies one of Europe's hopes for a spaceport that can ultimately compete with the United States, China and Russia.
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The state-owned Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, is among the sites building out orbital rocket programs to allow Europe to advance in the global space race and launch satellites from the continent's mainland.

“The gap is significant," said Hermann Ludwig Moeller, director of the European Space Policy Institute. “I would argue that Europe, to be anywhere relevant in the next five to 10 years, needs to at least double its investment in space. And saying that it would double doesn’t mean that it would catch up by the same factor, because you can expect that other regions will also continue to step up.”
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“The rocket motor will just fall freely into the ground, which means that you need to see to it that no people are in the area,” Mattias Abrahamsson, business development director for the science division at Esrange, said during a recent tour. “We have to see to it that it's not more dangerous to be in that area, if you want to pick berries or hunt or fish or anything like that, than if you're in a street in New York or in Stockholm or anywhere.”
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/donald-trump-united-states-russia-earth-swedish-b2817580.html
 

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