After two days of negotiations in Paris, the representatives of the 22 member states of the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed on Wednesday to spend 16.9 billion euros on space activities over the next three years.

This is an increase of almost 17 percent compared to the last Council of Ministers meeting in Seville, but is well below the almost 18.5 billion euros proposed by the ESA Directorate.

Niklas Zaboji

Economic correspondent in Paris

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ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher was pleased with the result and, in view of the difference between the proposed and the final budget, denied that substantial cuts had to be made.

"Through this investment, we are building a Europe whose space program reflects its political and future economic strength," he said.

It strengthens space travel in Europe and ushers in "a new era characterized by ambition, determination, strength and pride".

With around 3.2 billion euros, the largest share of the budget goes to scientific programs, followed by transport activities with 2.8 billion euros and human and robotic exploration and earth observations with around 2.7 billion euros each.

The ESA Director-General emphasized that these funds will enable all commitments arising from participation in global space programs to be met.

At the same time, with a view to the political support for the launch vehicles Ariane 6 and Vega, he emphasized that the transport activities remained the core business.

Larger contribution growth from France and Italy

The ESA also wants to participate in the satellite-based telecommunications constellation initiated by EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

It is intended to be the third such system alongside the navigation constellation Galileo and the earth observation constellation Copernicus.

The ESA countries want to spend 35 million euros in the first phase for preparatory measures for the development and validation of this system.

A further 685 million euros will then be made available in a second phase, but this is to be confirmed in 2023.

With a contribution of 3.5 billion euros, Germany remains the largest ESA contributor, followed by France with 3.2 and Italy with 3.1 billion euros.

Together, almost 60 percent and thus an even larger share of the budget than before goes to these three states in the ESA, which otherwise includes other EU states with the exception of Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland.

The contribution from the German side came as a surprise, as a financial plan by the Federal Ministry of Economics at the end of September envisaged a 15 percent reduction in contribution payments to 2.8 billion euros.

However, the increase compared to 2019, when 3.3 billion euros were promised to be paid into the ESA pot, is more modest than the increase in contributions from France and Italy.

The Federal Ministry of Economics spoke of 4 billion euros on Wednesday.

The deviation can be explained by the fact that the ESA takes into account changes in the economic environment in its figures, above all inflation.

Secure independent access

Despite the small increase in ESA funds, the federal government, which is now also taking over the ESA presidency on a rotating basis, presented itself as a major sponsor of space travel.

"Whether it's the Ukraine war, the energy crisis or the climate crisis: space travel makes important strategic contributions to solving these global challenges," said the Federal Government's Space Commissioner, Anna Christmann.

A "particular success for Germany" is that there has been more competition in launch vehicles, so that private providers of mini and micro launchers can take part in ESA tenders in the future.

"This is a paradigm shift, with which we are giving new impetus to New Space and private activities," says Christmann.

On Monday, at the start of the ESA conference, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and his French and Italian counterparts Bruno Le Maire and Adolfo Urso came to an agreement to support the established launch vehicle systems Ariane and Vega, but in future also satellites with micro and Shoot mini launchers into space.

Le Maire called the agreement at ESA level on Wednesday a "great success" and underlined that with these funds Europe could hold its own in space policy alongside the USA and China and thus ensure its independent access to space.