The European Space Agency (ESA) Triennial Ministerial Council, held in Seville on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 November, was a great success: with €14.4 billion over 5 years, including €12.5 billion over 3 years, the Agency’s expectations were met. Most importantly, with €1.87 billion, national subscriptions to the Copernicus terrestrial observation programme exceeded the expectations of ESA members by €400 million.
The Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, made no secret of his enthusiasm, recalling that ESA had achieved its overall objective, unlike the 2016 Ministerial Council (see EUROPE 11681/25).
All programmes will be maintained, he welcomed, acknowledging that some actions will be slightly delayed, citing the Lagrange mission dedicated to space weather. “Not enough to kill ourselves”, Mr Wörner said with irony.
The Ariane 6 and Vega-C launchers received the unanimous support of the 22 member countries as requested by ESA. “Space Rider will fly away and land!”, the ESA Director General also welcomed, referring to the European reusable launcher project.
A source explained to us that this last mission was not difficult to finance. Negotiations were more complicated on the two launchers, Ariane 6, the “historic launcher” dear to France, and Vega-C, the light launcher, Italy’s priority. In total, the secured budget is reported to be €1.8 billion. ESA was asking for €2 billion. “We are satisfied internally as soon as we reach 80% of our requests. So we can really talk about success”, said another source.
Similarly, the programmes dedicated to exploration (around €1.8 billion) and science (so-called mandatory programmes whose budget is unanimously decided) have been generously funded, with an increase of 25% for science compared to 2016.
Most importantly, the European land observation programme Copernicus was the “big winner” of the talks, with the programme receiving €400 million more than what was requested by ESA (€1.4 billion).
Josef Aschbacher, Director of the ESA Earth Observation Programme, welcomed this and announced that ESA will be able to develop a range of new Sentinel satellites, included in the Copernicus 4.0 programme, in line with new policy priorities, including climate change (see EUROPE 12376/15).
German boon
Germany has provided a significant boost by putting more than €500 million on the table for the Earth observation programme, followed by Italy (more than €350 million), France (€350 million) and Spain.
With nearly €3.3 billion in the global envelope, Germany created a surprise by announcing a strong contribution, while the signals sent from across the Rhine suggested a reduction.
France is the 2nd largest contributor to ESA and contributes €2.6 billion, followed by Italy (€2.2 billion). With a contribution of €1.6 billion, the United Kingdom has not disappointed.
See the different resolutions adopted: – http://bit.ly/2OuxR4P (scientific program and basic activities); – http://bit.ly/37KABCp (Space 4.0); – contributions by programme and Member State: http://bit.ly/2XVGoAF (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)