Final declaration from European conference on space
Parliamentary Space Groups from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy met recently at ESRIN to take part in the conference Europe Enlarges its Space. The conference was organised by the Italian Parliamentary Group, in the framework of the European Inter-parliamentary Conference on Space (CIEE), with the support of the Italian Space Agency and ESA.
Representatives of space agencies and the space industry also attended the conference where issues such as European space research activities and space programmes were discussed in round-table debates.
The conference ended with a declaration which, among other issues, drew the attention of the European Union and the European Parliament to the need to:
- work on coordinated policies for space to meet the demands of both the public and private sectors
- use and develop space applications for satellite navigation, environmental protection, Earth observation and the development of other innovative services, and extend these services also to non-EU countries participating in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
- coordinate training and research activities, and promote the transfer of results to small and medium-size enterprises to allow them to specialise in related applications
- establish and consolidate connections between European research centres and networks, space agencies and the space industry so as to coordinate and harmonise their activities and increase the return on investments
implement the European Space Strategy adopted in November 2000 by European Ministers for Research
This conference marked the end of the Italian chairmanship of the CIEE, which now passes to Belgium.
The full text of the Final Document of the Conference is given in the right-hand link.
