Brussels, 14/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - "We cannot afford to put off establishing clear and specific arrangements between the ESA and the Commission", said the President of the European Commission on Wednesday when he addressed the European Space Agency's (ESA) Council meeting in Edinburgh. The European Commission and ESA already work together, not without some difficulties, but Romano Prodi stressed that "the development and the implementation of a European Space Policy will critically depend on the co-operation between the Union and the ESA". "The Commission, in agreement with the ESA" will be presenting the European Space Policy "with clearly defined goals" for the various actors. The Commission is currently drafting the document that will define key initiatives like the GALILEO satellite navigation system and the GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security). Before stressing that "Much remains to be done", Mr Prodi noted that "We have seen significant progress in the relationship between the Commission and ESA over the last three years" and that ESA was a vital partner.
The ESA's member countries are the EU Member States (except Greece and Luxembourg), Norway and Switzerland. Alongside discussions on how to cooperate with the EU, the Council will consider the ESA's political objectives for the next few years and its operational budget for 2002-2006 and will take a string of important decisions concerning the continuation of programmes like ARIANE 5 and GALILEO and the launch of new projects. The Council is expected to confirm that the ESA will be contributing EUR 550 million for GALILEO from 2001-2005, deciding to commit a further EUR 497 million on top of the EUR 53 million that has already been pledged.