The importance and value of the relationships with the European Union (UE) are referenced in the ASI’s statute. 

The Agency, among other things, is in charge of promoting, supporting and coordinating the Italian participation to European Union projects and initiatives in the fields of space and aerospace.

Based on the Treaty of Lisbon (articles 4 and 189 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union), the EU placed space policies at the centre of the Europe 2020 strategy and the new industrial revolution and acknowledged the cross-cutting strategic importance of space, which is seen, on one side, as a tool to develop the European safety and defense policies, and on the other side to develop the environment, transport, agricultural and rural development, fishing and research policies.

The “Competitiveness” Council, in its session of May 30th, 2013, adopted its findings on the “"EU Space Industrial Policy - Releasing the potential for economic growth in the space sector”. In particular, it was stressed that space directly contributes to the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, and it was acknowledged that the space sector might contribute to the economic growth and to the creation of jobs, and that the services and application based on space technology are more and more playing a crucial and increasing role in the modern society.

In this respect, we must stress that the satellite services sector is very important for the UE economy, since it turns the investments in space infrastructures into concrete applications and services to the advantage of the citizens. By way of example, according to EuroSpace, the sales of telecommunication satellites account for more than 60% of the turnover of satellite producers in the last 10 years.

Within the Council of the European Union, until today the Competitiveness Council and the Transport Council have been in charge of the space activities, which have been addressed within the Space Working Party and the Working Party on Transport Intermodal Questions and Networks, where the Galileo programme is discussed.

‣ News

TUESDAY 30 AUGUST 2022

Release of the Executive Summary of the International Mars Ice Mapper Measurement Definition Team ‣

ASI, CSA, JAXA and NASA are very pleased to release the Executive Summary of the International Mars Ice Mapper (I-MIM) Measurement Definition Team
MORE...

THURSDAY 28 JULY 2022

Send in your Hypergravity Experiment Ideas & Discuss it with ESA/OOSA ‣

Conduct your experiment at the Large Diameter Centrifuge Facility at ESTEC through the Access to Space for All-HyperGES  MORE...

FRIDAY 15 JULY 2022

IAC 2024: THE SIGNING IN MILAN KICK-STARTS THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EVENT ‣

Italy at the centre of the international debate on the use of Space to support sustainability: the agreement and contract to host the 75th edition of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in 2024 in the Lombard capital

MORE...

WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE 2022

NASA, Partner Agency Leaders to Talk to Space Station Astronauts ‣

On June 17 at  1:40 p.m NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Italian Space Agency (ASI) President Giorgio Saccoccia, and U.S. embassy leadership will speak with astronauts aboard the ISS MORE...

THURSDAY 28 APRIL 2022

Samantha Cristoforetti has arrived on the Space Station ‣

The hatch is opened: the Minerva mission kicks off. During her mission, the ESA astronaut will conduct several scientific experiments for the ASI

MORE...