ESA director general argues for more collaboration as EU ramps up investment in own space agency

The EU has clashed with the head of the independent European Space Agency (ESA) over the bloc’s plans to take greater control over the continent’s space programmes, in a move that could cut the UK out of key decisions.

EU officials have rubbished as “unfounded” claims made by Jan Wörner, the ESA’s director general, that a restructuring of arrangements would “take decades and cost billions”.

The European commission had proposed on Wednesday that the EU make a large rise in investment in its space programmes from €12bn over the last seven years to €16bn for 2021 to 2027.

However officials argued that in order to maximise efficient spending of EU taxpayer’s money, and the “autonomy” of the bloc’s space strategy, the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency in Prague – responsible for the Galileo and other satellite programmes – would be rebadged to become the EU Agency for the Space Programme.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Artist’s impression of two of the Galileo programme’s Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites that will join four other Galileo satellites already in orbit. Photograph: J Huart/ESA

The ESA, which is independent from Brussels and has as members the non-EU states Norway and Switzerland, would “remain a major partner in the technical and operational implementation of the EU space programme” but the newly named EU agency would increasingly make key decisions.

The UK is seeking a continued role in shaping EU space programmes, and in particular it wants full access and privileges in relation to Galileo, the £8bn satellite navigation system intended to rival the US-controlled Global Positioning System.

It has been suggested that UK ministers may use their seat on the ESA’s space council to slow down procurement for the satellite programme should the EU continue to argue that the country has to give up its central role when it leaves the bloc.

Wörner had suggested there could be ways to protect the EU’s autonomy within the ESA, to allow all the partners to work together seamlessly, but that effectively creating a duplicate body would be to the detriment to all of Europe.

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He wrote: “Let us think European, I mean really European. Astronauts always report that they do not see any national borders in Europe. In that sense we should work for United Space in Europe and for the other way around, namely for United Europe in Space …

“Europe, this is to say at least the EU, ESA and their respective member states together, must join forces …

“There is no need to develop a new Space Agency in parallel in Europe, the ramp-up of which would take decades and cost billions and would therefore in itself be a major risk to the programmes it manages. We need to streamline, not double administrative layers.”

Senior EU officials insisted that the European commission was not engaged in a “power grab”, and that Wörner’s comments had been made before he saw the published proposal.



The row between the EU and the UK has been particularly vicious with British ministers threatening to take back past financial contributions to the bloc’s space programme. EU officials have responded by saying that the UK is “chasing a fantasy” and that it will not “negotiate under threat”.