10.11. Aufstellung des Weltraumprogramms der Union und der Agentur der Europäischen Union für das Weltraumprogramm (A8-0405/2018 - Massimiliano Salini)
Alex Mayer (S&D). – Mr President, I voted for this report and, as urged to by the UK Government, in support of the amendments to Articles 25 and 14, to provide more clarity on the opportunity for UK companies to continue to participate in EU space programmes post—Brexit.
The government are not right on very much at the moment, but on this they are correct about the potential impacts to UK space businesses. This is of vital importance to Airbus in Stevenage and Thales in Cambridge in my constituency. Indeed, the next phase of the Copernicus Programme could be worth GBP 700 million to UK industry.
This does rather underline how working out our future relationship before leaving the European Union really matters. Post—Brexit, the government won’t have any UK MEPs to amend legislation, to make it better for Britain, and the EU will be able to do whatever they like after we’ve left, and we will have no say. In fact, I worry that we face an astronomically bad deal.
(Abstimmungsstunde vom Mittwoch, 12. Dezember 2018)