Massimiliano Salini (EPP, Italy), rapporteur for the European Parliament on the EU Space Programme, expressed his dissatisfaction on Wednesday 22 July with the budget cuts proposed by Member States, reducing the programme's budget to €13.2 billion.
Member States agreed to set the financial envelope for the Space Programme at a maximum of €13.202 billion, of which €8 billion for the Galileo programme and €4.8 billion for the Copernicus programme (see EUROPE 12532/2).
“The EU cannot afford an underfunded space programme in a crucial sector such as space. Underfunding will unavoidably jeopardise the robustness and reliability of the Union space programme”, the Italian MEP told EUROPE.
Thus, according to him, “the cut of 12% compared to the Parliament’s position (the Parliament wanted to set the budget at €16.9 billion - see EUROPE 12142/7) will undermine the existing flagship programmes, Galileo and Copernicus, and will seriously compromise the launch of new strategic programmes such as GovSatCom and SSA”.
The MEP said he finds this decision all the more regrettable as the space sector has played a key role, particularly through new applications such as the ‘Galileo Green Lanes’ app.
He added that the European Parliament cannot accept such budget cuts as they stand and will seek to revise the budget upwards.
Space sector relieved, but bitter
“I am delighted that the EU Council has not further downgraded the European Commission's proposal”, Eurospace Secretary General Olivier Lemaitre told EUROPE, who made no secret of his surprise, however, at the European Commission's proposal to lower the space budget from the outset in its proposals at the end of May (see EUROPE 12526/20).
He also expressed concern about the drastic reduction of the European Defence Fund (see separate news item). “As long as Europe is not a power, nothing will justify a space investment comparable with that of other powers”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)