Paris calls for military angle to space strategy

[link to www.ft.com]

By Andrew Bounds in Brussels

Published: July 1 2008 03:00

The European Union should develop a military element to its space activities to counter growing security threats, according to proposals drawn up by France.

Paris, which today takes over the EU presidency, says Europe must counter threats from conventional military powers as well as terrorism. To do so it needs to add a "political and security dimension" to European space policy, according to documents sent to EU governments ahead of a meeting later this month in French Guiana, home to the European launch pad.

"In Europe, space policy has always been motivated by scientific and technical reasons. The US, Russia, China and so on are motivated by politics. Even so, Europe is the second- or third-biggest space power in the world. Using political drive as well, it would be even more powerful," said a European diplomat familiar with the plans.

French ambitions range from setting up an EU spy satellite system to joining a manned US mission to Mars.

Paris wants to exploit synergies with existing civilian space projects. For example, Galileo, the €3.4bn ($5.4bn, £2.7bn) rival to the UScontrolled global positioning system, is classed as a transport project, although it could be used for military operations.

The Paris-based European Space Agency, which controls the space programme and whose members include Norway and Switzerland as well as 15 EU member states, said it was working "hand-in-hand" on the strategy.

Franco Banacina, ESA spokesman, said a board meeting in November would map "new programmes that take into account new dimensions in which we will be working, like security and defence". The agency wants to boost its €2.8bn budget.

There was no question of amending the body's statutes that restrict it to peaceful activity, he said. "We are not talking about star wars."