Agency European Ministers decide to invest in space to boost Europe’s competitiveness and growth 21/11/2012 6673 views 6 likes

PR 37 2012 - ESA has just concluded a successful two-day Council meeting at ministerial level in Naples, Italy.

Ministers from ESA’s 20 member states and Canada today allocated €10 billion for ESA’s space activities and programmes for the years to come. Apart from the 20 ESA Member States and Canada, several observers were also present at the Ministerial Council: Eight out of the 9 EU Member States that are not yet Member States of ESA (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic and Malta); the European Commission, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Science Foundation, the European Defence Agency (EDA), the Europeanthe process initiated on the ESA side and the one initiated on the EU side. This Political Declaration was also supported by Ministers from 7 of the EU member States not yet members of ESA present at the meeting. Ministers decided to hold the next Council at ministerial level in spring 2014.

ESA Ministerial Council Press Conference replay



Adopted Resolutions Ministers adopted the following four Resolutions: First, “On the role of ESA in sustaining competitiveness and growth” political and programmatic highlights of the Council; Second, “Level of Resources for the Agency’s Mandatory activities 2013–2017” which cover the science programme and basic activities; Third, the renewal of the contribution of ESA Member States to the running costs of the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana; and Fourth, the “Political