Cash-strapped member states are reluctant to increase E.U. space funding.
[forbes.com] Before
the Lisbon Treaty, the European Space Agency and E.U. were in effect
separate organizations. The ESA had a different set of members and was
prohibited from developing explicit military- or security-related
programs. The E.U. is a policy-making body, the ESA the executive arm
for European space activities. Non-E.U. ESA states have now agreed to
alter this relationship, and the E.U. and ESA may now develop a more
dual-technology approach to key programs such as the satellite
navigation and positioning system Galileo and the Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security (GMES) network.
Resources and organization. The E.U. spends some 700
million euros ($1.05 billion) per year on space, which is a small
proportion of the 6 billion euros the ESA and European
states–predominantly France, Germany and Italy–spend. Compared to the
U.S. space budget and other competitors such as China, even this is
small.
The
division between the E.U. and ESA and the lack of an appropriate policy
framework were partly responsible for incoherent European space
policies, but differing procurement and managerial approaches to
Europe’s largest programs played their part too. The new structure
should bring a much-needed uniformity to program development and the
wrangles with contractors that have dogged the implementation of the
Galileo program. The ESA is already running procurement for the Galileo
program on behalf of the European Commission. Several critical
contracts are to be finalized by end-2009 in order for the system to
meet its 2013 in-service objective.
New status. The ESA’s new status should bring changes
to its industry policy that ensure that members receive industrial
contracts proportional to their investment in the agency. The
Commission will insist on a more competitive approach to procurement in
the future.
New budget? Civil space spending may be boosted by
at least 50%, to more than 6 billion euros annually from 2014 to lead a
Mars-sample return mission and launch astronauts.
However, finding the money for the ESA’s existing goals may be
difficult in the short term given the state of European public
finances. The ExoMars mission is struggling to stay within its 850
million euro budget. A deal with NASA last summer helped to keep the
program on track, but the loss of key technological responsibilities to
the United States led to objections from several ESA member states.
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Transatlantic cooperation. The ESA and NASA may also
be moving closer in the field of observation of the Earth. The two
agencies collaborate on exploration and scientific missions, and
earth-science data are already shared to avoid duplication of effort.
This would not only save money with budgets tightening on both sides of
the Atlantic, but is also consistent with the Obama administration’s
political goals.
Defense. More ambitiously, the ESA is seeking to
develop a common set of requirements and architectures to establish a
joint network of civil and military satellite systems. This would cover
all of Europe’s space-based dual-purpose security needs, with the
exception of signals intelligence and missile early warning. Work on
this would also include the European Defense Agency. The aim would be
to develop new programs as well as increasing cooperation between
member states under an explicitly European framework. Key areas of
cooperation would be in border monitoring and control.
National ambitions. The ESA would like to deploy an
integrated security system by 2014. However, some smaller states remain
suspicious of such an open militarization of E.U. space policy.
Supporters are selling the proposed network as a means of preparing for
and battling against environmental crises–disaster relief, pollution
monitoring and fisheries administration.
Outlook. The merger of ESA and E.U. space institutions
will bring a much-needed coherence to European space policies. Closer
links between European civil and military space will also bring
considerable benefits. However, while space may win a higher profile,
convincing cash-strapped member states to increase E.U. space funding
substantially will be hard.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/20/european-union-space-business-lisbon-oxford.html
