At an ESA council meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, ministers in charge of space activities met to decide on future space activities for Europe. (Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016)

In early December 2016, the European Space Agency (ESA) held a two-day council meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, where ministers from ESA’s 22 member states plus Slovenia and Canada allocated €10.3 billion for space activities and programs based on the vision of a “United Space in Europe in the era of Space 4.0.”

“Europe’s ambitions in space have received another boost today, and we applaud ESA’s decisions to further develop Europe in space,” said Nicolas Chamussy, Head of Space Systems, Airbus Defence and Space.

The following resolutions (available on ESA’s website) were adopted:

• Towards Space 4.0 for a United Space in Europe
• Level of Resources for the Agency’s Mandatory Activities 2017-2021
• CSG (Guiana Space Centre) (2017-2021)
• ESA Programs

In addition, a resolution on setting up the “ESA Grand Challenge” was approved in regular Council on Nov. 30, 2016.

A tabular account of the monetary sums and categories allocated by the various ministers also can be found here.