Brussels, 23/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The EP's industry and research committee in a resolution from its chairman Guido Bodrato (EPP, Italy) to be voted on in the plenary of 29 January in Brussels, underlined the increasing role space policy could play in Europe. It also requested a guarantee of transparency, safety and efficient working practices in Galileo when the Galileo surveillance authority is set up. On the question of funding for European space policy, the parliamentary committee considers (according to the press statement) that the objectives in the long term could only be reached via Community projects, which would require a gradual increase in Community budget spending for space. At the same time, the committee recognised the need for a more subtle and efficient system, "to enable returns to be reaped on an equitable geographical basis among the various EU Member States", as well as a need for national space industries participating in the market without giving rise to unnecessary duplication of effort.
In the context of manned space missions, MEPs requested that a European astronaut corps based in Cologne "be opened to future astronauts from the new Member States with a view to their taking part in manned space missions, with specific financial support from the European Union if necessary"; MEPs welcomed the Franco-Russian agreement last November on the setting up of a Soyuz launcher at Kourou in French Guyana intended to widen the range of European launchers and preparing for the possibility of future manned European flights.