During an event organised by Nereus on Thursday morning 3 May, several MEPs, including Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, Germany) - the Chairperson of Parliament's Sky and Space intergroup - and representatives from the space sector, expressed their satisfaction with the proposals put on the table by the European Commission for the next budget on space, as part of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027.
The European Commission presented a budget of slightly more than €16 billion at current prices or around €14 billion in constant prices for 2018 (see EUROPE 12013). This budget will help the existing programmes (Copernicus, Galileo and Egnos) to continue and develop new ones (Space Surveillance Tracking of objects in orbit, GOVSATCOM) and ultimately evaluate the operating costs of the European GNSS Agency (GSA).
It should be recalled that the Space industry sector is requesting a budget of €22 billion (see EUROPE 12004).
In a reply to EUROPE, Ms Hohlmeier said that the €16 billion in current prices was a “good basis” for beginning negotiations. She also added that they needed to include the Horizon Europe (the future European research and development framework programme) budget in calculations which are geared towards the space sector. Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP, Czech Republic) pointed out that the initial Commission proposals were between €8-10 billion. He added that they also needed to take into consideration the budget for space in the security and defence domain, which would ultimately mean a budget of close to €20 billion, according to this MEP on the budget control committee (CONT). MEPs recognised that a battle would take place against the member states.
Jean-Loic Galle, speaking on behalf of Eurospace, which represents the space industry, welcomed the level of ambition in the European Commission’s proposal for the space domain. Mr Galle highlighted the need to make at least €3 billion available to Horizon Europe in order to support R&D in the space sector. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)