Europe seeks space assets consolidation in 2022
2022 will be a crucial year to consolidate the European Union space assets. This was the strategic message delivered by the political decision-makers during the 14th European Space Conference. The minister of Science and the President of the Portuguese Space Agency represented Portugal in the event.
At the 14th European Space Conference, which took place on the 25th and 26th of January in Brussels, Belgium, the key message from European leaders was that 2022 will be a critical year to consolidate the European Union space assets. In addition, they have also considered crucial the launch of initiatives for the strategic autonomy of Europe — mainly regarding the use of space solutions to reach climate objectives and the role of New Space.
Thus, the Commissioner for the Internal Market at the European Commission, Thierry Breton, announced the Cassini space investment fund. The agreement between the EC, EUSPA and EIF materializes a commitment: multiply and attract more funds to reduce Europe’s strategic dependence in the space sector, reinforcing the resilience of value chains in critical sectors, such as “quantum” or artificial intelligence.
The ESA Director-General, Josef Aschbacher, stressed the need for a joint effort to continuously pursue an ambitious European space policy, highlighting the results achieved in the ESA Intermediate Ministerial Meeting, in November 2021, in Matosinhos.
The Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, focused on the importance of putting European citizens as an integral part of future space developments in the continent, as space is vital “to answer to societal challenges”, such as natural disasters and management of territory with high-resolution data.
Putting peoples’ needs and security first, mainly through the Earth Observation tools, was also the message that the President of the Portuguese Space Agency – Portugal Space. Ricardo Conde highlighted in the “Making Europe a New Space Hub: Boosting European space entrepreneurship” roundtable and noted that pandemic placed “space in the agenda of the recovery plans of multiple countries”.
