Portugal boosts European Space Agency funding

The 22 countries that make up the European Space Agency, including Portugal, will boost the institution’s funding.

This commitment was stated by the Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education Elvira Fortunato during the ESA Council at Ministerial Level, which will meet for two days in Paris.

In a statement given to the Portuguese press agency Lusa, Elvira Fortunato said expectations for the meeting are "extremely positive", especially after hearing her counterparts’ initial interventions.

"We all agreed on increasing the ESA budget to have autonomy, in Europe, as concerns space and therefore being able to leverage the economy and solve part of the problems we have", she claimed.

Elvira Fortunato also recalled that the Government will boost the investment envisaged for the coming five years of agency programmes.

The Minister said "Europe needs to be more ambitious", adding that "we cannot continuously depend on data or solutions that are imposed on us or sold by other States",

Elvira Fortunato explained that since 2016, when Portugal joined the ESA, the country "has been raising its financial contribution" and noted the country’s strategic position, especially the Azores, as well as the Portuguese researchers and industry that take part in scientific and technological development programmes.

Taking stock of the first morning of the Council at Ministerial Level, the Minister noted the speech made by the Agency’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, the words aimed at the younger generations and the commitment to preserving the planet.

"Today, we are at a generational crossroad where our generation brought progress and prosperity but failed to see that the world has natural limitations, and now this young generation is forced to fix what we did wrong, yet there is hope and hope is greater than fear", she added.

Elvira Fortunato further explained that space plays a role in fighting climate change and protecting biodiversity through the assessment and control of the atmosphere, soils, and forests, enabled by satellites.

"This provides us very specific information so we know the situation the territories are in and how we can protect them", she said, pointing on the other hand to the need to ensure "sustainable space for a sustainable Earth", regarding managing and controlling space debris.