The Federal Government wants to cut the funds of the European Space Agency Esa and initially spend more money on purely German All-missions. This is what a Grand Coalition proposal calls for. About the paper first reported the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
According to this, Esa will in future receive up to 80 million less from Germany each year. Currently, the German Esa budget is 927 million euros, in the next two years, it should sink to 855 million euros and finally in 2022 and 2023 still 850 million euros.
At the same time, purely German space projects will initially receive a good 12 million euros more in the coming year - a total of 297.2 million euros. Then the funds should be frozen, it says in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
more on the subject
The Bundestag will decide on Thursday on the request of the government. Negotiations are still ongoing on the budget and thus also on the ESA contribution.
Depends on funds from EU countries
The Esa is mainly financed by the European Union. In 2019, the latter paid a good 81 percent of the total budget. The membership fees represented about 12 percent of the annual average. Among the ESA member states, Germany is the second largest contributor. The Federal Republic contributed about 927 million euros. France made the biggest contribution with 1.2 billion euros.
In the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" criticized the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI) that the planned budget for the national space does not even equalize inflation. With the reduction of the contribution for the Esa Germany would say goodbye to "as leading space travel nation".
At the end of November, the Esa member states in Seville, Spain, are negotiating common European space programs and their financing. "It is now up to the member states how much they draw in the different programs, and on the 28th of November we can be sure," said Esa Director-General Jan Wörner of the German Press Agency.