First 'Space Council' Will Meet In Brussels

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<b>First 'Space Council' To Set Course Towards A European Space Programme</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />Ministers in charge of space affairs and those responsible for the internal market, industry and research meet in Brussels on Thursday 25 November for the first 'Space Council', a joint and concomitant meeting of the ESA Council at ministerial level and the EU Competitiveness Council.<br /> <br />This historic event marks the first step towards the development and definition of an overall European space policy and its implementation programme. A progress report on the basis of a position paper and an exchange of views will be the core of the Council’s agenda. <br /><br />The meeting will be chaired jointly by Mrs Edelgard Buhlman, German Minister for Education and Research and current chair of the ESA Council at ministerial level, and by Mr Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst, Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs and current chair of the EU Competitiveness Council. <br /><br />At the meeting, the European Commission and ESA Executive will be represented by Vice-President Mr. Günther Verheugen, Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, in charge of competitiveness and space matters, and Mr. Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General. <br /><br />These 'Space Council' meetings have been set up for the purpose of coordinating and facilitating cooperative activities between the European Community and ESA through their Framework Agreement which was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in May this year. <br /><br />The Framework Agreement has two main aims. The first is the coherent and progressive development of an overall European space policy, which will specifically seek to link demand for services and applications using space systems in support of EU policies with the supply through ESA of space systems and infrastructures necessary to meet that demand. <br /><br />The second aim of the Agreement is to establish a