Acta literal de los debates

Miércoles 17 de abril de 2019 - Estrasburgo

8.10. Programa Espacial de la Unión y Agencia de la Unión Europea para el Programa Espacial (A8-0405/2018 - Massimiliano Salini)

– Before the vote:

  Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, this is an important file showing our intention first to maintain, but also to strengthen, the EU’s position as a second space power. In line with the results of the negotiation, the Commission would like to make five statements on configurations of the committee, Member States’ participation, SST and related implementing acts, access to space, security configuration of the committee and Copernicus market development as a core task of the EU agency. This text will be given to the services of the European Parliament.

Commission statements

(in writing)

Configurations of the committee:

“As regards the introduced by the co-legislators configurations of the committee (within the meaning of Regulation (EU) N0 182/2011), the Commission notes that the Member States remain free and solely responsible to choose their representatives in the committee and the Commission does not interpret this provision as conferring on it any power to indicate or select the right experts for a particular configuration.”

Member States’ participation in SST and related implementing act:

“In the understanding of the Commission, its empowerment under Article 56(4) of the Regulation includes inter alia, as indicated in recital 65a, establishing whether offers submitted by Member States under Article 56(3) should relate to all or some orbits. The Commission furthermore understands that Article 56(3) allows the presentation of several joint proposals, each of them by at least 5 Member States and that the Commission may select several offers to maximise the participation of Member States in SST.”

Access to space:

“As stated in recital 4, in view of the limited budget, activities under Article 5 on access to space should be without prejudice to the main implementation of the programme components indicated in Article 3 (a) to (e). The Commission therefore intends to prioritise the implementation of the programme’s components.”

Security configuration committee for security:

“The Commission emphasises that, due to the sensitivity of the security aspects of the programme and in accordance with Article 3(4) and Article 6(2) of Regulation (EU) 182/2011, it is particularly important that the chair of the Programme Committee meeting in the Security Configuration makes every effort to find solutions which command the widest possible support on the security aspects of the programme within the Committee.”

Copernicus Market Development as core task of the EU Agency:

“The Commission regrets that additional tasks (Copernicus market development) will be given to the EU Agency while it would not have the resources to cope with them. Bearing in mind the overall resources constraints, the Agency may have to cope with these new activities by means of internal redeployment, notably through seeking further synergies and efficiencies.”