Matosinhos Manifesto: Accelerating the use of space in Europe

Contact Counsellor

Last Updated23/11/2021

European Space Agency (ESA) council approved a manifesto to accelerate the use of space in Europe “to tackle the urgent and unprecedented societal, economic and security challenges faced by Europe and its citizens.”
At the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting that was held in Matosinhos, Portugal, the Council of Ministers unanimously adopted this resolution that lays down a vision for the continent in terms of maintaining and expanding its activities in space.

It is an intergovernmental organisation that was formed in 1975 with the aim of developing Europe’s space capabilities.
The organisation has 22 member states — Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania are Associate Members.

A new document signed today by ministers from the ESA’s 22 member states outlines three urgent initiatives — dubbed “Accelerators” — and two mission proposals.
The initiatives involve measures to tackle climate change, respond to natural disasters, and to protect spacecraft from orbital debris and space weather.
The two missions aim to establish the ESA’s own system to launch astronauts into space and to probe Jupiter’s frozen moon Enceladus.

The first of these accelerators is for the ESA to start working towards the “Space for a Green Future”, so that people are better able to understand the current state of the planet and to develop scenarios and solutions for sustainable life on Earth.
This is in line with achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets by the year 2050.

It is called “Rapid and Resilient Crisis Response”, and it aims to support governments to act decisively on crises facing Europe, from flooding and storms to wildfires.

The third accelerator mentioned in the resolution is “Protection of Space Assets”, whose objective is to safeguard ESA astronauts and assets from interference by space debris and space weather.