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Back Report from Ministerial Council Meeting

Report from Ministerial Council Meeting

7 December 2005

Dear Colleagues, I am happy to report back from the Council of Ministers in Berlin that we obtained the full 2.5% per annum requested on a cash-limited (at current economic conditions) total for the Science Programme of 396 million Euros per annum in 2006.

David Southwood, Director of Science

Although this is well short of the achievement of my predecessor 15 years ago, it is the first time that Science has got any increase above inflation since that time. There was also a major change in the tone at the meeting as many Ministers spoke in favour of Science and mentioned the recent achievements of the Science Programme. This must be a result of the massive effort that I know many of you have made to change attitudes in Europe towards space science. I think we should look at the future very optimistically although, as was said at the last SPC, even this positive outcome does not assuage the difficulty of the immediate tasks we face in the coming spring. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

In the meantime, I can tell you that a major element of success was the Cosmic Vision long-term plan for which we are indebted to our advisory structure. I had numerous comments from members of delegations about how much they liked the brochure and how inspiring they found it was. All that effort seems at least to have delivered an understanding in some parts of what we are trying to do.

With best wishes,

David Southwood
Director of Science

Last Update: 1 September 2019
23-Jan-2026 13:27 UT

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