On Wednesday 26 November, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, officially proposed to ministers a budget of €22.254 billion for 2026–2029, which represents “0.03% of the GDP” of ESA member states or “€15 per citizen per year”.
“This proposal is not just a call to action; it’s a call to ambition”, said Mr Aschbacher in summary, when presenting his proposal in Bremen. He added: “If you choose ambition and unity, this [Ministerial Council] can be the start of a new era of European space cooperation, with greater European autonomy and resilience in space, a closer partnership with the EU, renewed economic growth and enhanced global competitiveness”.
Josef Aschbacher explained that his proposal was structured around the five strategic objectives of the ESA Strategy 2040.
With regard to protecting the planet and the climate, Mr Aschbacher noted that “the consistently high level of investment in ESA, combined with an exceptional partnership with the European Union (had) made Europe the undisputed world leader in Earth observation”. He then called for this position to be strengthened. With regard to Earth observation, ESA would like a three-year budget of €3.602 billion.
Exploration and discovery is another priority, with the strengthening of European leadership in cutting-edge space and Earth sciences, and the development of Europe’s “unique role” in the new era of space exploration. Mr Aschbacher regretted the fact that for a long time, ESA’s scientific programme had been maintained at almost zero net growth. For 2026–2029, he is proposing €3.787 billion for the science programme.
The Director General also underlined the Agency’s objectives with regard to exploring the Moon and Mars. The day before, he announced that NASA had confirmed his contribution to the Rosalind Franklin astromobile project. This participation had been called into question by the announced reduction in the American agency’s budget (see EUROPE 13658/22).
Another objective is to strengthen Europe’s autonomy and resilience – guaranteeing independent access to space, autonomous and secure space applications, in particular IRIS² and ERS (see other news), and strengthening crisis management. Mr Aschbacher said that ESA was targeting 27 launches with Ariane 6 between 2027 and 2029 and 16 launches with Vega 6 over the next four years, and that they wanted to modernise the European spaceport at Kourou. The proposal for Space Transportation is €3.895 billion and the amount proposed for Connectivity and Secure Communications is €2.145 billion.
Strengthening European competitiveness. The fourth strategic objective is to stimulate European growth and competitiveness by positioning Europe as an attractive global commercial centre within the rapidly expanding space economy. “The global space economy is currently worth €530 billion. Global economic forecasts predict that this figure will triple in ten years, representing annual growth of more than 10%”, emphasised Mr Aschbacher. Among other things, ESA will be working with the European Investment Bank to help SMEs and mid-sized companies in the space sector to obtain financing (see other news).
Finally, the last objective concerns ‘Inspiring Europe’; in other words, “rethinking space through collaboration, inclusion and citizen participation in order to inspire current and future generations”.
Announcement of first contributions. Although the final budget is not due to be adopted until Thursday, several ministers announced their countries’ contributions when they arrived. Dorothee Bär announced that Germany had set a target of around €5 billion, compared with just under €3.5 billion in 2022.
Belgium’s Vanessa Matz explained that her country would be contributing “just over €1 billion” to the ESA budget. “We are increasing our contribution by around 10% (compared with 2022), mainly because of security issues, but also because we want to promote our Belgian ecosystem and our businesses”, she explained.
When questioned by Agence Europe, the French minister, Philippe Baptiste, would not reveal any figures. “We will see what happens depending on the discussions that take place over the next few days”, he explained.
The European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, described the meeting as “an essential step in preparing the ground for the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework”. He noted that in its proposal for the MFF, the European Commission had increased the budget for space and defence fivefold (€131 billion). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)