BELGIAN CONTRIBUTION TO EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

UNCLAS E F T O BRUSSELS 003952

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR OES/STC AND EUR/UBI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2011
TAGS: TSPA PGOV BE
SUBJECT: BELGIAN CONTRIBUTION TO EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
AROUSES IRE



1. (SBU) Belgium's Senate is having heated discussions over
Belgium's contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA)
budget. The Senate's advisor and legislation manager for
Space and Technology Issues told Econoff that the 200 million
euro annual contribution of Belgium to the ESA was
dominantly earmarked for the ESA launcher program -- which
consumes the lion's share of ESA funding. Senate misgivings
are not over the level of procurement orders that would come
back to Belgian producers, but rather over the regional
distribution of the orders. Due to the leading role of
Walloon aerospace firms in space sciences over the past
thirty years, most of this procurement is sourced in
Wallonia, Belgium's francophone south. Break-out of ESA
orders gives about 90 percent of contracts to Wallonia, and
only about 10 percent to Dutch-speaking Flanders.


2. (SBU) Embassy source voiced the expectation that the
Senate and later the lower house of Parliament will approve
the funding, but only after obtaining federal government
acknowledgment that more investment should be made in
Flanders in the aerospace technology sector. This will also
provide substance to the expected debate over whether the
federal government will continue to hold responsibility for
international space sciences cooperation. Belgium's
progressive devolution of
power to the three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels)
since 1980 has seen most science and technology policy and
investment promotion for innovation shift to the region level
from the federal level. After national elections planned for
the May/June period, Belgium plans talks on the
Federal-Regional power distribution. The Senate sciences
advisor believed that ultimately the federal role would be
upheld, because the structure of the ESA designates national
participants. In his view, asking the ESA to accept regions
as sovereign members "would open the door to madness", given
the many regional voices present in ESA countries, and render
the ESA unmanageable.


3. (SBU) Comment: If this incident is any indicator,
Belgium's classic linguistic political friction remains
alive, despite handing many powers to the regions. The
spring constitutional reform discussions could open Pandora's
Box further.

KOROLOGOS

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