Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-28-Speech-3-164"
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"en.20040128.13.3-164"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin by congratulating Mr Bodrato on the quality of his report and I would like to include Commissioner Busquin in those congratulations since, in the course of this legislature, which is drawing to a close, he has been absolutely crucial in the European Union becoming a space power. I do not believe the intergovernmental level is enough today and, in a world where competition in space matters is growing, we must underpin the development of space and the European Union’s space autonomy with a strong political power, which is embodied by the European Union. I believe that is the essence of what has happened during this legislature. Personally, I am glad about it. Another thing that has happened is that we have launched an ambitious programme, the Galileo programme, in which a number of countries in the world are interested, China in particular.
I would like to raise a number of points about the White Paper and Mr Bodrato’s resolution. The first point is about the budget. I believe it is absolutely essential for us to be very ambitious about space and in particular that our ambitions about space should be part of an industrial policy. An independent space programme is not simply a matter of sending devices into Europe’s space, it is also about mastering the basic technologies and their civilian applications, of which there are a great number.
The second point is about the link between the military and civilian. I think we should tie in our thinking, that of Commissioner Busquin and the DG for Research, with what is happening in the common foreign and security policy, because it is well known that the Americans and all the existing space powers, including the Russians and the Chinese, have devoted a large part of their space developments to military applications.
The third point concerns enlargement. I think a number of the countries that are going to be joining Europe are not necessarily going to feel interested in Ariane or in space developments whose spin-offs today benefit mainly France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany, but not necessarily Lithuania, Cyprus or Malta. It is therefore very important that we send those countries a message. That is why I have tabled an amendment to the effect that we should bring astronauts from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe into the corps of European astronauts and that we should plan a manned flight with one such astronaut very soon in order to involve them in the conquest of space and its magic and so that they will support it.
My final point is about US strategy. I do not know whether it is an opportunist strategy on Mr Bush’s part in the run-up to the election campaign. At any rate I am glad that Europe is in on it, but it must not for all that neglect the establishment of Soyuz in Kourou or neglect its independence in space matters. That is what I wanted to say to you, ladies and gentlemen."@en1
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