Brussels, 01/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 30 May, ministers in charge of Union member states' space policy and the European Space Agency (ESA) asserted during the informal ministerial meeting held in The Hague that they wanted to provide the Union with a single space strategy. In this connection, they would also like to set out shared objectives as soon as possible, before the presentation of the Commission's communication planned for next October.
Jan Wörner, the Director-General of the ESA, informed EUROPE that "both European Union and ESA member states have taken a clear position in support of a single space strategy". In a reference to the space race between the US and USSR last century, he said that this decision is excellent news because it completely avoids a "European space race" taking place. He said that they now had to define the shared objectives and that he hoped that these objectives would be set out by the Commission and the ESA together.
According to one source close to the dossier, the shared objectives could be presented by July. They are expected to be in three different categories: the need to include space challenges in the different European policies, particularly sectoral ones and those more relating to citizens; the improvement of the EU's position on the international space market and increasing the private sector share of European orders, which are currently dominated by the public sector and, finally, independent access to space but also independent operations in space.
Some observers believe that there was a significant danger of the Union having to deal with two more or less different strategies carried out by the two undertakings. Therefore, the question of relations between the Union and the ESA will occupy an important place in the strategy, together with the use of space data (see EUROPE 11560 and 11540).
The Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU was counting on presenting a "Manifesto from The Hague" on Tuesday 31 May at the end of the day as part of the European Space Policy Conference but this presentation has been postponed. It is expected to be redrafted by the end of next week and include a summary of the different interventions and exchanges that took place at the Competitiveness Council on 26 May (see EUROPE 11558), the informal meeting of ministers in charge of space on 30 May, as well as the European Space Solutions Conference in The Hague on 30 May until 3 June. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)