The Member States of the European Space Agency (ESA) have adopted a budget of €7.2 billion for 2022, Director General Josef Aschbacher was pleased to announce at a press briefing after the 303rd ESA Council meeting on Wednesday 15 December.
This is an increase of 10% compared to 2021, he said, indicating that €2 billion came from the European Union and about €500 million from third parties.
The European Recovery Plan to the rescue
In addition, an ‘arrangement’ with Italy was adopted to employ about €1.2 billion for a series of space activities in the field of earth observation and space transportation funded by the European Recovery Plan.
Similarly, €200 million was handed to ESA by Greece to implement space activities in the field of secure and quantum connectivity, also funded from the Recovery Plan. This is thought to only be the beginning. Portugal, the Czech Republic and Spain are potentially interested in using the EU’s recovery plan in the space sector, a source told us.
A ministerial meeting in 2022 under the best possible auspices
According to the Director General, the first package of proposals submitted by his services to the Member States for the 2022 ministerial meeting received a “warm welcome”, because it was “coherent” and “very well prepared”. The financial indications still need to be “confirmed and consolidated” by Member States in the coming months, he added.
In this respect, he expects the February Space Summit (see EUROPE 12817/24) to provide sufficient political impetus from EU and ESA ministers and from French President Emmanuel Macron. The five priorities put forward in the Matosinhos Manifesto have again received strong support from the Member States (see EUROPE 12837/5).
Copernicus, a joint proposal at the end of January
On the issue of funding for the European Earth observation programme, Copernicus, the Director General said that ESA and the European Commission were considering the options on the table to address the €750 million funding gap for the programme (see EUROPE 12845/5). He announced that ESA and the Commission would make a joint proposal towards the end of January. The option of benchmarking programmes would be preferred, although Mr Aschbacher still wants to keep the “door open” to the British. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)