European Ministers deliberate on discovery and competitiveness

N° 57-2005 - Paris, 6 December 2005


European Ministers deliberate on discovery and competitiveness


The Ministers responsible for space in the European Space Agency's 17 Member
States and Canada today concluded a two-day meeting of ESA's ruling Council
in Berlin by deciding on a coherent plan for discovery and competitiveness
for Europe in space. They accordingly endorsed the continuation of a set of
ongoing programmes and agreed to undertake major new initiatives designed to
give Europe a clear vision and tangible means to further strengthen its
space exploration and exploitation activities. They emphasised the need for
Europe to maintain a competitive space sector able to lead the search for
new discoveries, guarantee access to strategic data and new services, and
consolidate its share of the global commercial market.

The Ministers appreciated the efforts made to heighten European citizens'
awareness of space activities and their benefits, thanks in particular to
the success of recent European scientific missions such as Huygens and Mars
Express. These missions, together with a series of successful Ariane 5
launches, have confirmed once again that combined European skills and
efforts enable Europe to succeed in the most challenging of enterprises and
achieve a level of excellence for discovery and innovation in the global
arena.

The Ministers also noted the increase in the volume and quality of the
Agency's relations with its international partners. They recognised that the
global scenario in the space sector is evolving rapidly, in particular with
increasing numbers of players mastering major space technologies and
offering competitive conditions for civil and dual-use applications.
The Ministers reaffirmed the strategic importance of Europe continuously
improving its scientific, technological and industrial capabilities in the
field of space so as to enable it to better respond to the expectations of
its citizens concerning the environment, quality of life and security. They
noted that European industry has encountered difficulties in recent years,
resulting from a significant downturn on the commercial market as well as
the competition from industries operating on the basis of lower production
costs; they also took note of the measures taken by industry to improve its
position, through difficult reorganisation and concentration processes
which have led to a reduction in the volume and distribution of European
capabilities.

A major political step was achieved with the approval of an overall European
launcher policy ensuring coherence between the launcher and satellite
fields.

The Ministers recognised that it is crucial to continuously foster European
cooperation on space activity by further developing an overall European
Space Policy encompassing ESA, the EU, plus national and industrial
programmes, and to allocate the available resources and capabilities to
common European initiatives, so as to achieve the critical mass needed to
face the worldwide competition.

Decisions on programmes / activities

On the programmatic side, the Ministers took decisions concerning the
Agency's mandatory activities (scientific and basic) and optional programmes
(Earth observation, telecommunications, satellite navigation, human space
flight, microgravity, exploration, launchers). Those decisions confirm the
ESA countries' commitment to boost progress in space science and to be at
the leading edge of discovery, thus supporting the development of
competitive services and future applications for European citizens. The
decisions taken concern the following:

a) The Agency's mandatory activities: the Level of Resources for 2006-2010
(scientific programme and basic activities)

b) Continuation of ongoing programmes:
- subscriptions for the Earth Observation Envelope Programme;
- subscriptions for the International Space Station Exploitation Programme
Period 2 and the European ELIPS programme Period 2;
- subscriptions for launcher evolutions:
- subscriptions for Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES)
, focusing on technologies, applications and mission demonstrations;

c) New programmes:
- subscriptions for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security
(GMES) Space Component, also representing a key European contribution to
the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) initiative;
- subscriptions for the European Space Exploration programme Aurora,
comprising its first Exploration mission ExoMars and a Core programme to
prepare for future exploration missions;
- subscriptions for the preparation of future launchers
- subscriptions for the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) for the
preparation of new dedicated technology programmes, focusing on the
development of technologies with a view to non-dependence and security, and
aimed at preparing and demonstrating new concepts such as formation flying
satellites in order to carry out missions of strategic and economic value to
space science, Earth observation and new - in particular security-related -
areas.

Note for Editors
For further background information on the programmatic aspects, see ESA
information note 02/2005 at http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_2_2005_i_EN.html

or call:

ESA Communication Department
Media Relations Division
Tel : + 33 (0)1 53 69 71 55


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info