EU delays decision on ESA status

On its latest Competitiveness Council meeting on May 26, 2014, the Council of the European Union agreed on “Conclusions towards a shared EU-ESA vision for space fostering competitiveness”.

Proposals to transform the European Space Agency (ESA) into an EU agency have been discussed regularly. At this latest Council session the institution explicit acknowledged the important role of ESA as an independent governmental organisation, continuing to be an asset for Europe, and sharing the European Commission’s assessment ”that transforming ESA into a EU agency would “require political consensus which may be difficult to reach in the foreseeable future”. Therefore the EU Council requests further studies and analyses concerning the future status of the European Space Agency as well as proposals on how to improve EU-ESA relations, with a future impact assessment to be made in cooperation with the ESA DG.

The text of the EU Council’s conclusions can be found here.