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Croatia to become 12th ESA European Cooperating State

31/03/2023 1513 views 0 likes

Croatia became the 12th country to sign the European Cooperating State Agreement, strengthening its relations with ESA.

ESA's Josef Aschbacher with Prof. Radovan Fuchs of Croatia

On behalf of Member States, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher signed a European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement with Prof. Radovan Fuchs, Croatian Minister for Science and Education, in Paris on 23 March.

The ECS Agreement will enter into force once ratified and upon subscription by Croatia to the Plan for European Cooperating State (PECS) Charter. It will supersede the Cooperation Agreement signed by the former Minister of Science and Education, Ms Blaženka Divjak, on 19 February 2018 in Zagreb, and its Implementing Arrangement for Technical Assistance and Expertise.

Croatia has participated in the PECS Committee meetings as an observer since March 2014. A member of the European Union since July 2013, they received an observer status in ESA official meetings (for example, Council, International Relations Committee, Programme Board for Earth Observation) for matters of common interest, such as Galileo and Copernicus.

The Director General warmly thanked Minister Fuchs for his strong personal commitment to the bilateral cooperation, and the delegation to ESA for steering its concrete implementation through space projects, namely Mr Hrvoje Meštrić and Ms Doris Jozić, from the Directorate for Science and Technology at the Ministry, and Mr Želimir Kramarić, a Member of the Management Board of HAMAG-BICRO.

Under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, this agency aims at enhancing SME development and promoting investment and innovation.

It was recalled that building a competitive industrial space capability would take time and require a sustained and coordinated effort from national authorities. The level of technical and managerial support provided by ESA experts is set to increase.

Partnering at regional and international levels, raising awareness about the benefits of space activities, nurturing synergies between academia and industry, as well as training the future workforce, will be key to meet objectives jointly agreed.

Departments in the main universities and research institutes have already developed courses and R&D programmes in space-related fields, such as the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing or the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb. Astronomical and aerospace associations, observatories (in Rijeka, Hvar, or Višnjan) and planetariums are also very active in educational activities.

In his former capacity as Director for Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher represented ESA in March 2020 at the EO Worksop (‘Space powering Green Deal and Digital Economy’) organised in Zagreb under Croatia’s EU Council Presidency.

He said, “I was very impressed by national projects presented in that context, showcasing the potential for the further development of space applications. No doubt that your niche approach to innovation will bring a lot of added value and lead Croatia to a successful implementation of this ECS Agreement, and hopefully in a few years’ time to a further step in the bilateral relations with ESA.” As a follow-up action, ESA initiated the preparations for an EO training course in Zagreb in the course of 2023.

The signing ceremony took place at the newly refurbished ESA Headquarters in Paris during the 315h Council meeting, in presence of Ms Anna Rathsman, Council Chair, and of delegations from Member, Associate and Cooperating States.

An expert in biomedicine, the Croatian Minister of Science and Education could also appreciate during his guided tour of the facilities that experiments conducted on the International Space Station, in particular the development of regenerative life support systems, have led to spinoffs that are improving life on Earth and supporting environmental performance

Twenty contracts have already been placed with Croatian organisations, out of the two first calls for proposals, with an average value of €100k per call, in the areas of Earth observation (40%), space science (2%), exploration (11%), technology (29%) and telecoms (18%).

Thirteen proposals from the third call were approved for implementation. Space safety was also identified as a key priority. Representatives from the ESA Directorates of Operations and Science participated in the 18th European Space Weather Week held in Zagreb on 24–28 October 2022.

Croatian companies involved in space activities include in particular Oikon, SENSUM Consulting, Amphinicy, INETEC-Institute for Nuclear Technology, Protostar Labs, and ADNET. It is intended to build and launch a first Croatian CubeSat by late 2023 (see CroCube and Perun projects).

Minister Fuchs emphasised that the new agreement will ‘enable Croatia to network more easily, use ESA’s programmes and facilities with one goal – boosting the technological, innovation and research capacity through closer cooperation between academia and private sector’.

ESA has now established formal relations with all EU members that are not Member States of ESA. Through the ‘Resolution on industrial policy measures to achieve a successful integration of European States in the frame of ESA’, adopted by Council on 13 December 2018, an improved cooperative approach designed for European states with a view to their possible accession to the Convention was introduced. The initial ECS scheme dated back from 2001 and was implemented for the first time for Hungary in 2003.

Four former ECS concluded Association Agreements at the end of their PECS period: Slovenia in 2016 (a ‘reinforced’ Association was introduced in 2020), Latvia in 2020, Lithuania in 2021 and Slovakia in 2022. New ECS Agreements with Bulgaria and Cyprus entered into force in 2022. A general cooperation agreement has been concluded with Malta in 2012. It is planned that Malta will also become an ECS in early 2024, in addition to Croatia, with ESA Member State agreement.