08/02/2019 (Agence Europe) – In a report published on Thursday 7 February, the French Court of Auditors highlighted the imbalance in the financial effort at European level when it comes to European space policy. The Court recalls that France makes the largest financial effort in the Ariane programme and regrets that the effort rests mainly on France, Germany and Italy. For the Court, the Ariane programme is of cardinal importance in order to guarantee the Union autonomous access to space, and should be included as a compulsory programme (which is not currently the case, as the programme is precisely not compulsory) within the meaning of the European Space Agency's Financial Regulation. In addition, the Court points to the rapid obsolescence of the new Ariane 6 launcher in the face of the rise of reusable launchers in the transatlantic. For the full report (in French only): https://bit.ly/2WKGudz. (PH)