On Tuesday 27 January, at the 18th European Space Conference, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) Joseph Aschbacher gave an update on the latest space programme announcements from the European Union and ESA. He also called for closer relations between the European Union and his agency. (Interview by Camille-Cerise Gessant)
Agence Europe - During his speech (see EUROPE 13795/21), European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius announced significant progress in the space sector, notably with the Govsatcom and Iris² programmes. Why is it important to have these two programmes?
Joseph Aschbacher – It’s absolutely important. Everyone is familiar with Starlink, which now dominates broadband internet from space. The market share is about two thirds globally, which means it’s a virtual monopoly.
Europe therefore needs its own capabilities, because we need our independent, autonomous space technology and space infrastructure. Other partners around the world, not just Europe, see Europe or its industry as potential partners to supply some of these services. So, it’s critical technology, very strategic, very important.
We’re on the good path here.
Some actors are concerned that certain European countries, such as Germany, want to develop programmes that look like Iris². Are you concerned about possible duplication at EU level?
Europe benefits from European infrastructure and European solutions.
We would like to congratulate the German defence minister for announcing a €35 billion investment in space for defence. This is extremely important and necessary if Europe is to catch up with its international partners.
What’s more, we now have a unique opportunity: while this national investment is used nationally, controlled nationally and implemented nationally, it’s very important that we have a European framework where it can be included and connected.
We’ve proposed exactly that at the ministerial (ESA meeting last November, editor’s note – see EUROPE 13760/23), through the ‘European Resilience from Space’ (ERS) programme, where we will create a system architecture for pooling and sharing national assets in addition to developing new assets at European level.
This pooling and sharing is fundamental, because it allows investments like the one in Germany and other countries to be truly interconnected, creating an infrastructure under German national control, while at the same time being integrated into the European framework.
But if we don’t do this architecture now, at the beginning, we’ll lose the possibility of connecting it to other assets at a later date.
You mention the ERS programme, which is also linked to defence. How could ESA be involved in the defence efforts of the EU or European countries?
Some Member States asked us to propose a joint programme, now called ERS, to support defence and security requirements. The European Space Agency then set about defining and preparing it. In one year, we went from 0 to €1.3 billion, the subscription amount obtained for ERS. This is more than I had proposed (€1.1 billion).
It also shows that our Member States are very committed to this type of activity, which is new for ESA, as it is a programme entirely dedicated to security and defence. ERS is a precursor to the European Union’s future EOGS programme, the Earth Observation Government Service.
On Tuesday, you spoke of the excellent cooperation between ESA and the European Commission, and you mentioned the possibility of deepening this cooperation. Could you explain how?
This is work in progress. No decisions have been made and all this will need to be discussed with ESA Member States, the EU and so on. But what I see is that our roles are very complementary and that we work together very effectively.
Commissioner Kubilius and I have a remaining mandate of roughly three and a half years, and it would be good if we could also use our good personal relations to reinforce and strengthen the institutions.
Each EU Multiannual Financial Framework is renewed every seven years. So, in the past, every seven years we had to negotiate a completely new agreement between the Commission and ESA. This is very time consuming, it’s a huge effort, every time you have to go into a lot of detail on the financial frameworks and legal frameworks. So, these negotiations last one to two years.
But if we could pre-define some of these conditions for a longer term, meaning beyond one seven-year MFF period, that would make it much easier for Member States on both sides, but also for industry, because they would have planning stability and they would know how we work.
The Commission plays a very important role as political leader, defining the policy, priorities and requirements based on which ESA develops space infrastructure, then launches the satellites and hands them over to the Commission as the future owner. It is very important for ESA to be the Commission’s trusted partner for all space activities.
I would like to establish a long-term stable relationship, including the roles of the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway - ESA member states - because they have so much to offer to the European space sector. Their inclusion, one way or another, in this framework would be beneficial for everyone. Of course, these three countries would need to participate in the EU programmes that they’re allowed to participate in.
There is certainly a lot of negotiation and work to be done, but it would undoubtedly be beneficial for Europe as a whole, especially in the current geopolitical situation, from both a security and economic perspective. We need to strengthen ourselves, and I believe that strengthening our relations within Europe is a prerequisite for making Europe stronger.