(ANSAmed) - ROME, OCTOBER 24 - The role that the European Space Agency (ESA) is getting ready to play in the coming years amid new space policies will be the focus of the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting on Thursday in Madrid.
    The other two major themes to be discussed by the EU research ministers ahead of the 2019 Ministerial Conference will be relations between the ESA and the European Union and strategic guidelines for new programs, ESA general director Jan Woerner told ANSA. ''There will be discussion on the role of ESA as an agency and its structure,'' Woerner continued, and while taking into account the steps taken by the European Union in space programs, such as the satellite navigation system Galileo and the Copernicus program for observation of the Earth. Since the creation of ESA in 1975, the outlook for European space activities has changed a great deal. Now even the European Commission is involved in significant space programs and new roles are being drawn up, with a more political function entrusted to the European Union and a more technical one for ESA. The Thursday meeting ''is one that will be useful to inform countries that support ESA of prospects before preparing the 2019 Ministerial Conference,'' Italian Space Agency (ASI) chief Roberto Battiston said.
    The October 25 meeting will also be a chance to bring in new agreements, such as one between France, Italy, Germany and Spain on the use of the new European space launchers Ariane 6 and Vega C for their institutional launches. The aim is to ensure an operating base for the European launchers industry so that it can compete with emerging nations such as China and India. Italy and India are expected to sign an agreement on a project for the Fly-Eye telescope, a hunter of asteroids and comets near the earth - also known as Near Earth Objects (NEO) - and space detritus. Created through a patent by the Italian National Astrophysics Institute (INAF), the telescope is expected to be installed in Sicily after two years. ''This telescope,'' Battiston said, ''will enable us to observe NEOs even from Italy, thanks to its sufficient atmospheric characteristics. The agreement marks the end of long work done with ESA and of which we are especially proud.'' (ANSAmed).