MEPs of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) support an increase in the overall budget of the European Space Programme to €16.9 billion (compared to €16 billion in the Commission's proposal) for the next European budget cycle in a vote (54 votes in favour, 7 against) on the report by Italian EPP MEP Massimiliano Salini on Wednesday 21 November.
"In an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment, investing more in space is an EPP Group priority to preserve European leadership, competitiveness, sustainability and autonomy in this strategic domain in the future", insisted the rapporteur, for whom space cooperation is an example of European added value, during the vote.
MEPs have therefore amended Article 11 on the budget: - maintaining the budget envelope for the Galileo and EGNOS navigation programmes at €9.7 billion; - slightly increasing the budget for the Copernicus land observation programme to €6 billion (compared to €5.8 billion in the Commission's proposal); - €1.2 billion budget line for the SSA (Space Situational Awareness) programme, whose mission is to monitor 'space weather', asteroid trajectories and space debris, as well as Govsatcom, the encrypted communication programme.
MEPs also strengthened Article 5 on access to space, by setting the aggregation of institutional orders in stone to support the EU's launch services and thus its competitiveness. In addition, the ITRE Committee added the need to develop alternative technologies for launchers with reference to the rapidly expanding reusable launchers developed by the private sector in the United States. This amendment was particularly important for the Italian and French EPP delegations. These two Member States have a particularly dense space industry.
The Commission's role has also been strengthened in the management of the programme in order to protect the EU's interests and the sound management of European funding. Any decision by the Commission for Govsatcom will be taken by delegated act. As such - and this is a recurrent requirement on the part of the European Parliament - all decisions to implement the programme will be taken by delegated act, and not by act of implementation by the Commission, the delegated act allowing Parliament to have a right of scrutiny and objection to decisions.
One peculiarity slipped into the votes: MEPs amended Article 25 on the protection of the EU's and Member States' security interests by removing the possibility for Member States to control companies eligible for the programme. "We did not understand this amendment, we will try to modify it during the vote in plenary session", explains a parliamentary source.
Following a decision taken last week at the Parliament Presidents' Conference, we are told that this text and the rapporteur's negotiating mandate will be put to the vote at the Parliament's plenary session. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)