Brussels, 17/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - Encouraged by the confidence granted her by French President, Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, during the presentation of her space policy at the Council of Ministers (see EUROPE 16 April p 11), the delegate Minister for research, Claudie Haigneré, outlined her strategy to the press last Tuesday. She indicated that in order to end the crisis in the space sector, it was necessary to provide it with a new scope - financial, institutional and structural, at a European level, which would guarantee the independence of the continent in space access. She declared that, "Our work is now to send this message to our European partners", underlining the strategic importance of space and information access faced with US domination of the sector. She also stated that, "Only Europe together can perhaps resist this risk of hegemony", indicating that, "all European actors should (as a consequence) make a collective commitment as soon as possible, to the necessary adaptation of their industrial capability".
An inter-Ministerial meeting took place in Paris last Saturday on France's position in European space policy. A restricted Council will be meeting in May on the same subject, before the meeting of Member States from the European Space Agency (ESA), which is expected to finalise the framework agreement between the EU and USA. In this connection, Ms Haigneré stressed that it was necessary to progress from one stage to the European level of European space policy, which had been intergovernmental and which should now become European. In order to "get out of the crisis", Ms Haigneré believes that it will be necessary to restructure the "launcher" sector. Outlining the calendar for getting things up and running, she also announced that ESA would be in charge by signing a single contract with an industrial company.