In 2018, The European Commission (EU) proposed to allocate €16 billion to enhance EU’s leadership in space. However, things didn’t turn out so hopeful for the space sector with the new budget announcement by EU. There was a cut in the overall budget for science and technology, including space.
The budget for the European Space Programme has now been set at €13.2 billion, of which €8 billion will be invested in the satellite navigation system Galileo and €.4.81 billion for Copernicus, Europe’s earth observation programme. In the earlier budget, €9.7 billion was allocated for Galileo and €5.8 billion for Copernicus.
The remaining 392 million euros is going to be split between European space situational awareness (SSA) investments and GovSatCom, an initiative aimed at providing secure satellite communications for EC members.
Horizon Europe, the EU’s next research and innovation program will receive a budget of €80.9 billion. The figure is quite less as compared to the proposed €94.4 billion put forward by the European Commission in May. The budget for R&D have also got significantly cut.
