The European Space Agency (ESA) intends to request a €750 million budget for the Agency’s programme dedicated to the development of the European constellation project for secure connectivity at the November Ministerial Council, according to an internal document seen by EUROPE on Friday 7 October.
In this provisional document, the ESA is proposing an indicative envelope of €750 million to develop the ‘Constellation’ project with the European Union, in line with the regulation currently being negotiated (see EUROPE 13023/8).
According to the document, partnership projects will be set up with one or more private consortia selected by the Commission for the development, validation, deployment and operation of the EU secure government connectivity infrastructure, in accordance with the provisions of the legislative proposal.
To this end, the Commission and ESA will closely coordinate the procurement approach. The Commission is expected to launch its call for tenders and will select the concessionaires at the end of 2023.
After summarising the main lines of the European project (public/private partnership, strictly governmental segment, segment dedicated to commercial activities, etc.), the document indicates that ESA will also seek to maximise synergies between the activities carried out under the EU Secure Connectivity programme and the activities carried out under the ARTES 4.0 programme (‘Space Systems for Safety and Security’ - 4S programme line), in particular for ‘light’ commercial and governmental services.
In addition, the document discusses the first results of thePreliminary Market Consultation launched in July. The report states that, according to initial responses in early September, the telecoms sector has confirmed a strong interest in both commercial and ‘light’ government services.
€750 million, a “lower limit”
The main elements of the architecture and solutions required (constellations) to meet the EU’s needs were also confirmed, as well as the set of critical technologies that Europe needs to master for this purpose, including security and technological independence aspects. The financial envelope estimated by ESA was confirmed as the lower limit, according to the respondents.
As a reminder, the European Commission hopes to reach a budget of around €6 billion.
The European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial meeting will be held in Paris on 22 and 23 November. It is an ordeal for Director General Josef Aschbacher, who hopes to do as well as, if not better than, the Seville ministerial meeting (see EUROPE 12379/2). The overall proposed budget of €18 billion will be at issue. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)