Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-098"
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"en.20031008.9.3-098"2
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"Mr President, the Green Paper presented by Commissoner Busquin, which Parliament particularly welcomed, once again put forward the strategic importance of space policy for the independence, safety and economic growth of a Europe that wants to remain at the forefront of scientific research and technological innovation.
In recent months, a turning point was reached with the constitutional Convention, which gave space policy a specific role, thus representing a legal base for Community programmes and consolidating the strategy begun with the extraordinary success of the Galileo programme. Nevertheless, we must not disregard the fact that the Commission has also given a specific response to the unprecedented crisis that has struck the space sector, specifically launchers, undermining the activity of many industries and accentuating distortions of the world market.
The space asset
is crucial to the concentration of professional expertise, research and technology, which characterise the development of the knowledge-based economy. It is a resource that cannot be wasted and the Commission and the European Space Agency Council have shown that they are fully aware of this. Parliament’s report stresses the role of the ESA and national agencies, and expresses its satisfaction with the framework agreement, which the European Community and the ESA supported and Parliament strongly pressed for. This framework agreement confirms the unique role of the ESA in organising research and technological and industrial development. This role must be specified in a European space programme that redefines the responsibilities of the Commission in the face of public demand and new initiatives that call for political representativeness and a specific institutional competence.
Giving Europe a role as leader on the international stage, involving all the EU countries is not incompatible with the firm belief that international cooperation is necessary: cooperation, in the first instance, with the United States – thinking here of the International Space station – but also with other countries, including Russia, Japan and China itself. We must, however, be aware that the quality of international agreements – in particular those relating to space – depends on the quality of scientific, industrial and also financial support. Europe’s goals have to be supported by public resources, as is the case across the world, and by more active organisation of common policies in fields such as agriculture, telecommunications, the environment and transport. We need to give stimulus to private initiatives, as is the case with Galileo, but we need to take note that the objective of doubling the space budget in ten years will only go part way towards bridging the gap with the United States.
Space science has played a pioneering role. The quality of human resources and basic research, however, warrants greater attention. The future of the European Space policy depends on this being given. This is why we believe that the next framework programme for research should dedicate more funding to the space sector, guaranteeing a quota in this field for small and medium-sized enterprises, which are becoming an indispensable support for new innovative enterprises.
My final point concerns the Convention’s guideline for an arms agency that is open to all the Member States, according to the structured cooperation method. This guideline can help to implement the industrial and technological asset. This is not – and we need to make this clear – about militarising space, but rather about recognising that this is about twofold activities, both military and civil, as well as a strategy for European security that cannot be abandoned because of the temptations of US unilateralism. To avoid misinterpretations, the report refers to the United Nations resolution on prevention of an arms race in outer space and to the Convention itself, which proposes to promote peace and to contribute to security and sustainable development on earth.
We are now looking forward to the White Paper, after discussing the Green Paper. Our expectations are based on the positive opinions that we have expressed thus far and they are, we believe, the expectations of the scientific world and the European industrial world too."@en1
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