Massimiliano Salini (EPP, Italy), European Parliament rapporteur on the draft European space programme regulation, proposes increasing the overall budget from €16 billion to €16.7 billion in order to boost funding for the encrypted GovSatCom communications programme and the space surveillance programme (SSA).
While welcoming the overall increase in the budge proposed by the European Commission in its proposal (see EUROPE 12035), the MEP says that the budget for the above two programmes is too small.
Salini suggests singling out the two programmes, which in the Commission’s initial proposal share the same budget line of €500 million. Two €600 million budget lines would be created, one for GovSatCom and the other for the SSA programme.
The rapporteur predicts a compulsory expansion (‘shall’) of the scope of action for the programmes in the domain of space meteorology, which the European Commission only foresees as a possibility (‘may’).
The MEP clarifies and strengthens the role of the European Space Agency – the current European GNSS Agency or GSA – naming a raft of jobs, such as coordinating the development of the ‘ground segment’ for Galileo and Egnos, and developing the space segment for Galileo. Also foreseen is he possibility for the agency to crease a network of 'local offices'.
Finally, the periods of assessment by the Commission and the agency will be reduced to three years, compared to the five proposed by the Commission.
Another important element: Salini wants to strengthen the aggregation of commands for European launchers in order to support the European sector, by giving it sufficient visibility and budge security.
This is in response to Russian, Chinese and US practices, where the space sector has great support from public funds and exclusivity on the national interior market.
In addition, the MEP focuses on the development of ‘alterative’ launchers, meaning reusable launchers, a technology where the US is currently decisively in the lead. In this connection, there is ‘space diplomacy’ to strengthen the European network and international cooperation.
Salini underscores the need to support SMEs in the sector’s industrial chain and in the framework of the regional space ‘hubs’ proposed by the European Commission. He also suggests creating a ‘first contract approach strategy’ for helping start-ups access finance.
In his explanatory statement, Salini regrets that no specific budget line has been devoted to space research in the next framework-programme Horizon Europe (see EUROPE 12064).
The rapporteur says that he will son be tabling number of amendments on the main articles of he draft legislation due to lack of time for redrafting his draft report. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)