Recommendation 790
(1976)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 16 September 1976 (10th Sitting) (seeDoc. 3833, report of the Committee on Science and Technology). Text adopted by the Assembly on 16 September 1976 (10th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Thanking the Council of the European Space Agency for the transmission, in accordance with
Resolution No. 10 of the Ministerial Space Conference of Plenipotentiaries of 30 May 1975, of the Agency's annual reports for 1974 and 1975, thereby, as stated in
Recommendation 251 (1960), ensuring "the parliamentary influence of this Assembly" ;
2. Expressing its satisfaction with the establishment and managerial functioning of the European Space Agency (ESA) ;
4. Believing that the Agency has shown signs of becoming a dynamic element in European integration, contributing significantly to its political unification and also to fostering increased Atlantic co-operation ;
5. Welcoming the progress made since the signing of the ESA Convention on 30 May 1975 on an overall European space policy, comprising the internationalisation of national programmes into a European space programme, the construction of the Ariane launcher (including the preservation of the Kourou launching site), the development of operational communications, maritime navigation, air traffic control, and meteorological satellites, European participation in the post-Apollo programme through construction of Spacelab, and the continuation and development of a scientific satellite programme ;
6. Noting with satisfaction that these programmes make European space policy primarily application and operationaloriented, while also remaining sufficiently scientifically-oriented ;
7. Noting that, in addition to its ten original signatories (Belgium, Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), Ireland also signed the ESA Convention on 31 December 1975 ;
8. Hoping that further Western European states will become Members of or associated with ESA ;
9. Determined to undertake steps in national parliaments to assure the earliest possible ratification of the ESA Convention ;
10. Recalling its appeals for an industrial policy, for finding markets, especially in the developing countries, for European space products, and believing that these matters as well as the organisation of European operational systems and their relationship to other international systems should be given priority in the near future ;
11. Welcoming the co-operation which now exists between the European Space Agency and several of the scientific working parties and study groups set up by its Committee on Science and Technology,
12. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite the member governments concerned :
to accelerate the ratification procedures of the ESA Convention ;
to meet in the ESA Council at ministerial level at least once a year ;
to use ESA for the co-ordination of European space policy in such organisations as the United Nations, Intelsat, the World Meteorological Organisation, the International Telecommunications Union and Unesco ;
together with the Agency, to give priority to the formulation of an industrial policy, the organisation of operational application satellite systems and their relations to other international systems, a market analysis followed by a market strategy, the definition of Europe's collaboration not only with the United States in the space shuttle system, but also in any future new systems undertaken by the United States or by any other country ;
13. Urges the governments of Council of Europe member states which are not yet Members of ESA to consider the possibility of full or associated membership of the Agency.
