CNES at the 7th Conference on EU Space Policy

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall was in Brussels for the 7th Conference on EU Space Policy, which this year is focusing on “EU space policy confronted with the rising demand for services and applications”.

The 7th Conference on EU Space Policy, under the patronage of the European Parliament, began today, Tuesday 27 January, in Brussels. Among the speakers delivering the welcome message at the start of proceedings were Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President for Energy Union at the European Commission, Jerzy Buzek, Chair of the European Parliament’s ITRE Committee, and Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA.

This year’s event was especially important as it was the first European-level rendezvous since the ESA Ministerial Conference in Luxembourg. The decisions reached in Luxembourg reflected the commitment to sustain Europe’s global space effort, in particular the go-ahead for the Ariane 6 launcher that will keep Europe’s industry competitive and maintain its status as a leading world space power.

Invited for the first plenary session, Jean-Yves Le Gall took part in discussions on the theme “Brave new world: the shifting sands of global competition”. In his speech, CNES’s President reminded delegates of his call the previous year for the European Commission to step up its involvement in satellites and commended the encouraging actions since engaged in this respect. He then underlined the challenges now posed by ‘New Space’, explaining that to meet them the space sector will need to adopt the same methods as those employed for Internet.

Speaking after the day’s proceedings, Jean-Yves Le Gall commented: “First of all, in these uncertain times for us in Europe, I wanted to commend the efforts we are pursuing to ensure that Europe remains a leading world space power, as attested by the decisions at the ESA Ministerial Conference in Luxembourg. However, while we have developed strategic positions in applications and services, we now need to consolidate and expand them by readying our industry to embrace evolving technologies such as big data, for example. To adapt to these shifts, we must also forge closer ties between the European Union and ESA, through a solid, long-term partnership in space to invest in the future. Today, I believe there is no stakeholder more naturally placed or more committed than the European Commission to help our industry make the strategic transition to New Space and prepare Europe to take up these challenges.”