Brussels, 14/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - France wants more Europe in space. The French Centre d'analyse stratégique hopes to enlighten its national government on European strategy to be adopted over the coming decade. A report was therefore submitted to the French minister for research, Laurent Wauquiez, on Wednesday 12 October. It calls for more Europe so that the Union will maintain its position as a leader when it comes to space. The report explains that Europe has real assets in the space field despite its weaknesses as regards organisation and the lack of a clearly defined and sufficiently consensual supranational interest. France has interests in the space industry (especially with its launch base in Guyana) but it is aware that the race into space cannot be won alone. The report acknowledges the fact that no European state would have been able to carry out the Ariane or Galileo programmes on their own.
Better European governance. The French Centre d'analyse stratégique therefore recommends that the European Union take up battle formation by developing a scheme of governance for simple, robust and effective space programmes, where every party has a rightful place and plays a full role, whether these be the European Council, member sates, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the European Space Agency or national space agencies. True European space governance is needed, headed by the Commission and implemented by the European Space Agency, in order to go beyond the 27 national markets and aim at autonomy in accessing space and space technology.
Global cooperation. The EU, however, should not neglect the other global players but take support from international cooperation in order to conduct large-scale scientific programmes such as the exploration of Mars, for example. The French strategic analysis centre is convinced of this saying that the priority objective in the long-term exploration of the solar system is the red planet, alongside a need for civil and military oversight (in particular on debris in space).
Industrial policy. To achieve this, the centre considers the EU has an industrial and space technology base that is of excellent quality, although it suffers from the weakness of its internal market and the lack of European predilection. It is therefore a question of setting a true industrial space policy in place, with the required financial means.
Financing. In coming decades, Europe will be devoting over €5 billion to space policy, a budget that is nonetheless “modest”, the Centre d'analyse stratégique considers, as it accounts for only 0.06% of the European budget. The report states it would be necessary to increase budgets by over 50% in 20 years but fears that the arrangements for allocating space budgets, the impossibility of taking commitments beyond the multiannual financial framework for EU budgets, and the lack of coordination in the different timetables between the EU and the ESA, will hamper the true establishment of a real European space policy. (MD/transl.jl)