Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) gave the green light to a partial agreement to start negotiations with the European Parliament on the Regulation establishing the European Union Agency for the Space Programme on Wednesday 19 December in the late afternoon.
At the Competitiveness Council at the end of November, negotiations between delegations stumbled on Germany's position, which was against the extension of the role of the Commission and the GSA Agency (see EUROPE 12150) in managing the programme. The concerns have since been resolved.
Three main points were clarified, in particular on Article 5, dedicated to access to space, where the role of the European Space Agency (ESA) in future governance was better defined. Here too, guarantees have been given to Germany to safeguard ESA's technological development role.
Another point concerned the participation of Member States in the programme dedicated to space surveillance and tracking (SST). Here, the wording has been changed to allow a larger number of States (5 instead of 3) to submit a common proposal to participate in OHS services.
Finally, delegations agreed to keep the new title of the GSA Agency, namely the European Union Agency for the Space Programme, against the opinion of Germany, which feared confusion with the European Space Agency (which is an intergovernmental agency not part of the European Union).
This is a partial agreement, as the parties with budgetary implications have to be decided at other technical and political levels, namely Article 7 on the participation of third countries, Article 8 on access to the SST, GovSatCom and PRS programmes, Article 9 on contracts and arrangements with third parties and Article 11 on the budget. Here, negotiators left the Commission's proposals in brackets, with the overall budget currently set at €16 billion in current prices.
The partial agreement thus obtained, the Council and the European Parliament - which adopted its position at the beginning of December (see EUROPE 12159, 12142) - will be able to open interinstitutional negotiations. A first meeting is expected to be held on 11 or 14 January under the Romanian Presidency of the Council. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)