Posted on 28 August 2014
A Sorensen grant has allowed Dr. Pawel Frankowski to carry out a detailed study on ESA (European Space Agency) fonds about security and space policy at the Historical Archives of the European Union. Assistant Professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Dr. Frankowski has also examined ESA’s predecessors’, ELDO’s and ESRO’s fonds.
ESA, an intergovernmental space organisation, binds together European countries since 1975 in space research and technology for peaceful purposes, which evolved over time to eventually allow the launch of such programmes as Galileo. While not all the EU countries have belonged to the organisation, these have still been connected to it through a complex system of international liaison.
Pawel Frankowski has identified Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy as the key players of ESA. The competition between Britain and France can clearly be seen in the papers at Villa Salviati, however smaller members, like Switzerland, stamped on their output, too. The documents also reveal an interesting dilemma when countries like Switzerland or Norway cooperated within ESA but not necessarily within the European Union.
In the beginning of the 90’s the European Union expressed a keen interest towards space cooperation with developing countries.This trend is revealed in the archival evidence of the ESA fonds. Some delegations put the case on ESA’s agenda realising its importance to security, development, the EU and European industry.
“It is very interesting to read the notes and minutes of International Relations Committee meetings, to see which country wanted which kind of peaceful use, to see how the discussions were conducted and to compare the notes made by delegates during the discussions with the final reports of meetings presenting a more neutral result.”
The aims of participating countries have been different and they have also used ESA to further their own agendas. For example France’s incentive has been militant, Swiss delegates emphasized a need for European autonomy in space, whereas Italy focused on technology with a view of impacting industry and economy. In Dr. Frankowski’s opinion Germany has been most successful in its aspirations, succeeding in combining both economy and security objectives.
Because ESA's purpose shall be to provide for, and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European States in space research and technology and their space applications, the very term ”security” has been avoided in official statements and reports. However for people at ESA, security has meant trying to avoid military and defence issues whilst concentrating on questions of safety (like space debris) and a broader vision of security. Thus they have tried to provide security in different ways, like cooperating with such countries as China and Soviet Union, providing economic security for European industry, promoting open market for space applications, and last but not least cooperating with other international organizations, like the United Nations or European Union.
The history of ESA, as a parallel to the European Communities and European Union, represents a joint effort of European countries, with different logic of integration. A strong emphasis on cooperation and indisputable technological and scientific success of ESA offers an opportunity for embracing the merit of cooperation, and building regional stability and security by different means.
Building the European and world security through cooperation, as background idea of any policy of ESA, has been extremely important for the overall European space policy. At the second meeting of the Space Debris Working Group one of the representatives noticed “with surprise that there is no reference to international cooperation" in the final document.
The ESA fonds, according to Dr. Frankowski, is a unique, well organised and detailed collection making Villa Salviati the right place to visit when studying European space policy.
ESA fonds
Postgraduate Sørensen Grants
Jagiellonian University in Krakow
Contact Dr. Pawel Frankowski: pawel.frankowski[@]uj.edu.pl