The European Space Agency (ESA) Council has concluded its 347th meeting, approving a series of governance, programme and international cooperation decisions, including senior management appointments, an extension of Greece’s national satellite programme, and updates to cooperation agreements with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The Council meeting was held at ESA headquarters in Paris from 16 to 17 June 2026 and was chaired for the final time by Renato Krpoun. ESA said Juan Carlos Cortés will take over as Council Chair at delegate level from 1 July 2026.
Among the governance decisions, ESA Member States appointed Christine Klein as Director of Controlling, Finance and Operational Procurement, effective 1 July 2026, and Jean-Luc Trullemans as Director of Strategy, Legal and External Affairs, effective 1 January 2027.
Member States also agreed that an Interim Council meeting at Ministerial level will be held in December 2026 in Italy. ESA said the meeting will be used to define a European exploration roadmap for the coming years.
On programme activity, the Council agreed ESA may enter into negotiations with potential partners and providers for the EPIC (ESA Provided Institutional Crew) mission concept, which ESA described as a professional astronaut mission planned for about one month and intended to provide flight opportunities for ESA and partner astronauts.
The Council extended the project arrangement for ESA support to Greece’s national satellite programme until 2031, adding €361 million for continued and expanded activities. ESA said the amendment will support further national Earth observation, telecommunications and space situational awareness work.
Internationally, the Council approved extending ESA’s cooperation with FAO for a further five years, until 2031, focused on using Earth observation data for food and agriculture. It also approved extending and amending a cooperative agreement with ISRO until January 2032, broadening cooperation to include human and robotic exploration, space weather and the sustainability of outer space activities, while continuing work across areas including space science, Earth observation and operations.
The Council also approved for public release a status report on Space Safety.
