CNES Board of Directors meets at Guiana Space Centre Cements partnership ties with French Guiana

Convened in Kourou, French Guiana, for its 338th session, CNES’s Board of Directors met to work on the agreements the agency has signed with the French Guiana regional council and local municipalities. It also updated its multi-year strategic real-estate plan.

CNES’s Board of Directors examined the latest amendments to the formal agreements enshrining the agency’s continued commitment to the economic and social development of French Guiana, through its partnership with the regional council and 17 Guianese municipalities and inter-borough councils, with whom it is set to sign 17 new agreements on Monday 13 October.

The Board of Directors also discussed the agency’s updated multi-year strategic real-estate plan, originally drafted and submitted to the Board in 2009 at the government’s request and approved in 2011. The real-estate strategy outlined in this plan covers sustainable development guidelines, refurbishment of field centres and real-estate planning. A notable point raised by the Board was the fact that keeping a tight rein on energy consumption is the environmental target of the objectives contracts put in place by the agency’s directorates. As of mid-2014, results show that good progress has been made in improving energy efficiency in CNES’s four field centres in Paris Les Halles, Paris Daumesnil, Toulouse and Kourou.

The decision amending the projected statement of incomes and expenditures for 2014 was also presented to the Board. This new statement takes into account the revised agency budget established this spring and the Budget Act 2014-891 as amended on 8 August.