Ministers from the ESA Member States along with Associate Member Slovenia and Cooperating State Canada will meet to discuss future space activities for Europe and particularly, the budget of Europe’s space agency for the coming three years.

ESA is seeking an increase in funding for the mandatory programme supported by all of the Member States, and for an ambitious portfolio of optional programmes. These are structured along four main pillars – science and exploration, space safety and security, applications and enabling and support activities. The proposals carry an overarching motto of Inspiration, Competitiveness and Responsibility.

Time is of the essence for decisions to be taken by Member States in view of global challenges such as climate change where space has proven to be essential in providing data for scientific understanding and for critical evidence-based decision-making.

The proposal also calls for responsibility from Europe in tackling threats in space and from space through the new programme on Space Safety. This includes proposals to reduce space debris, to automate control of the increasing space traffic and to mitigate dangers from asteroids and space weather.

All of ESA’s activities, including those in cooperation with the European Commission, will be under consideration. ESA’s goal is to continue to bring its Member States together for those joint activities that offer the best results and stimulate competitiveness in European industry. We also continue to work with Europe’s scientific communities to think of the most challenging and exciting programmes that offer value for money and inspiration to our funders – the public.

 

Further information

The programmes being discussed at the Council can be read at the Space19+ website www.esa.int/space19plus, where there are also videos featuring each ESA Director talking about their main objectives for the coming years. All of these videos are free to use with credit to ESA.

More video material and the latest images can be found at ESA Television: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Television

There will also be updates on ESA Facebook and Twitter channels, #space19plus

 

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of which 20 are Member States of the EU.

ESA has established formal cooperation with seven other Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.

Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int

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