Visit to ESA Headquarters of Pierre Lellouche and Werner Hoyer
Pierre Lellouche, Secretary of State responsible for European Affairs in the French Government, and Werner Hoyer, Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the German Government, who are both General Secretaries for Franco-German Cooperation, visited ESA Headquarters on 15 June.
They were welcomed by ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, who presented the Agency and the status of the various projects it is carrying out in all areas of European space activity.
During his presentation, Jean-Jacques Dordain underlined that ESA is one of the few space agencies in the world that develops both science activities and space applications. This has enabled the creation of significant synergies by transferring advances in science and technology to applications that serve the needs of citizens. ESA’s industrial policy, which has made possible the creation of a globally competitive European space industry, was also presented and discussed.
In their statements, both Ministers acknowledged ESA’s ranking as an agency that “shines very high in the European sky”, a “real manager of European programmes” which, with a budget significantly lower than that allocated by other space powers around the world, has nevertheless managed to position Europe’s space endeavours at the very forefront in a certain number of key areas for Europe and its citizens. They welcomed ESA and space as an area that is providing responses for technologies of the future. The challenges that lie ahead in the areas of defence and manned space exploration were also noted.
The Ministers likewise drew attention to the advent of a European space policy, as part of the new institutional framework created by the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, and ESA’s necessarily key role in implementing it.