El Director General del CDTI, Maurici Lucena, inaugura su Presidencia del Consejo de la Agencia Espacial Europea

Texto í­ntegro del discurso:

"Dear colleagues, Director General, Directors, Members of Delegations, ESA Staff, Good Morning and welcome to this 201 Council Meeting.

As you all know, this is my first meeting as Chairman of ESA Council and I would like, if you allow me, to share with you some reflections before approving the agenda and commence the meeting officially.

First of all, I would like to start by thanking all Member States for placing their confidence on me as their representative at Council, the maximum governing body of ESA. I am fully aware of the great responsibility I have been entrusted with and start my term of office with illusion, hope and determination.

Most of the people around the table already know me. I am an economist and I have been in charge of CDTI as Director General since 2004 and therefore heading the Spanish delegation to ESA from 2004 until my election as Council Chair. CDTI has become the principal instrument of the Spanish Government to implement our national industrial R&D policy across all sectors including, of course, a sector so technology intensive as aerospace. I have therefore a broad view of many industrial sectors which I intend to capitalise in the benefit of ESA.

In addition to the good practices I have learned from my predecessors, I very much believe that my background on microeconomics will result beneficial in the executions of my duties. In this respect, it is evident and widely accepted that Company owners and Company managers may not have the same incentives when taking Company related decisions; and what is more, sometimes their respective view could be not so convergent as it would be desirable. Economists call this "a principal-agent relationship problem" and theories stemming from Corporate Governance aim at aligning owners and managers interest so as to maximize the company value in the long term.

As far as ESA is concerned, Member States represent the property and ESA Staff represents the managers while the maximum value in the long term of ESA becomes the objectives set up in the Convention of the European Space Agency. In this scenario, the role and performance of ESA Chair, duly supported by the well designed institutional machinery of ESA, becomes essential to reconcile the wills of Member states with ESA executive decisions.

Having said that, the mentioned role of Council president which, in my opinion, ranks highest on Chair duties, will be extremely easy for me to accomplish given the top class personal and professional skills of the current ESA Director General, Mr Dordain, to whom I hold the highest respect. Likely, I am fully convinced that ESA Directors, ESA Head of cabinet and, generally speaking, all ESA staff will contribute to cope with the challenges ahead and to overcome all the problems that may come up.

Focussing on space matters, next future is challenging as ever for ESA. In this connection, I would like to highlight the following events that will fall within the timeframe of my mandate, (1) there is a Ministerial Conference in November, (2) we must continue advancing in the precise definition of the relation between ESA and the European Commission, regarding the different dimensions of the European Space Policy; there is in fact a Space Council next week (3) the successful implementation of Galileo and GMES, two cornerstones for Europe, vital for its future, (4) new programs to be commenced in the ESA framework, (5) and last but not least, to study the potential review of some matters that are part of the ESA foundations, (Decision Making Process, Financial Management Reform, Procurement Process, etc).

I guess that I am right if I affirm that all my predecessors (11, if I am not wrong I am the 12th) thought that their mandates were rather complicated and overlapped with periods especially demanding for the Agency. I believe it is a very good signal that ESA Chairs feel this way since it means they are fully aware of the tremendous responsibilities they are bearing and the crucial role of ESA activities within Europe. Thus, I am afraid I am going to disappoint you as well, but I truly believe ESA is currently in a turning point with formidable challenges in the horizon and I am convinced that our success in overcoming them will determine, without any doubt, the specific weight and importance of ESA in the coming Europe.

I do not want to finalize this brief introduction to today's Council without publicly thanking the two ESA Chair with whom I have had the opportunity to work as Head of the Spanish Delegation to ESA; I am referring to Sigmar Wittig and, specially, Per Tí¨gner, who has been so kind to share with me his large experience in ESA matters and from whom I have received valuable advices. Both of them have significantly contributed to consolidate ESA as the organization that it is today: not only a first class Space Agency worldwide, but also one of the paradigmatic realities of the common European undertaken, dreamt by our ancestors for centuries and now, fortunately, came to fruition.

Thank you very much for your attention."