The European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, assured that the suspension of the Soyuz launchers at Kourou in French Guiana, announced by the Russian agency Roskosmos, would have “no consequences on the continuity and quality of the Galileo and Copernicus services”, in a statement published on Saturday 26 February.
The Commissioner added that the Russian announcement, which is a response to EU sanctions imposed on Russia (see EUROPE 12899/2), does not affect the continued development of this infrastructure. The Commissioner confirmed that the development of the second generation of these two programmes would continue.
He added that the European Union was in any case ready to protect critical European infrastructure in the event of aggression, before insisting on the continued development of the Ariane 6 and Vega C launchers, with the intention of guaranteeing European autonomy of access to space (see EUROPE 12892/19). Arianespace, the company that operates the launchers, including Soyuz, had not publicly commented on the Russian announcement at the time of publication.
At the European Space Agency (ESA), things seem less clear-cut. Director General Josef Aschbacher, after stating that the Russian aggression would not affect the cooperation programmes with Russia (such as ExoMars) (see EUROPE 12899/12), expressed his sadness at the events on Friday 25 February and said he was in consultation with the Member States. “But for now, support for our missions and our colleagues continues until further notice”, he concluded on his Twitter account. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)