The Spanish state is a founding member of the European Space Agency (ESA). Since its establishment, Spanish entities have actively participated in the various activities of the Agency, which has been the main means of scientific and technological training in space matters in Spain.
The route of Spanish participation has meant a long and constant path of increasing responsibilities of the entities of our country both in the design and in the development and construction of subsystems and space systems, until reaching in recent years the capacity of integration of a complete satellite. Spain has not been oblivious to this process of strengthening the relevance of space activity. Our national technological, industrial and scientific capabilities have evolved from marginal activities to the leadership of full national and international missions.
ESA is an international organization in which Spain is a founding member and which has specific rules and procedures. In particular, ESA follows the principle of “fair return” which, as far as possible, guarantees a minimum of industrial return compared to the investment made in ESA programmes (the percentage varies from programme to programme). The work of the management teams of the CDTI in the different ESA programs and the support to the Spanish industry and its proposals, allow to complete this minimum and achieve that this percentage of industrial return becomes 100% for Spain. For this reason it can be said that in recent years there is an adequate return from both the scientific-technological and economic perspective in the ESA.
Execution and results
At the Council of Ministers held on 11/07/2023, it was agreed to authorize the Spanish Space Agency to modify the plan of contribution to ESA, previously modified after the Agreement of 8 November 2019.
The payment profile that is authorized for 2023 and for future years is 300 M€ for each year, until 2027.
The planned payment profile for the period 2023-2027 includes possible variations for cost overruns in the programmes, adjustments of contributions and price updates as envisaged as State responsibility under the ESA Convention, as well as possible interests that may arise under the ESA Financial Regulation, and the payment of pensions for this period.
Payments for 2022 and the first two tranches of the quota for 2023 have now been paid.