Poland is being dragged into space. Warsaw is fighting for a specialized ESA center

Minister of Finance and Economy Andrzej Domański will represent Poland at the Ministerial Council of the European Space Agency (ESA), PAP learned from the press office of the Ministry of Development. The meeting will be held on November 26-27 in Bremen, Germany.

In addition to Minister Domański, the Polish delegation will include “employees of the Ministry of Development and Technology, potentially supported by representatives of other ministries and the Polish Space Agency,” the Ministry of Energy and Technology informed.

Poland has been an ESA member state since 2012. As Minister Domański announced in September, Poland's contribution to ESA will gradually increase.

– We are in contact with ESA and we really want this money to be spent very effectively on projects in Poland – said the minister then. He clarified that Poland's contribution to ESA in 2025 will amount to EUR 193.4 million. Of this amount, EUR 33.7 million is the mandatory contribution and EUR 157 million is the optional contribution.

In the next ESA budget “Poland plans to declare a contribution to ESA's optional programs at a level higher than declared during the Meeting of the Ministerial Council in 2022, including the increase in the contribution in 2023; the amount of the declared amounts will reflect the priority nature of space policy in the Government's activities,” the Ministry of Development said.

The Ministry of Energy and Technology also emphasized that Poland – as the eighth largest shareholder of ESA's optional programs – “is consistently strengthening its position as a reliable and active partner in the European space sector.”

Regarding the planned creation of the ESA Center in Poland, announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in July, the Ministry of Energy and Technology said it would be an “initiative of strategic importance for the security, technological resilience and information sovereignty of Europe and the development of the national space sector.”

“The planned ESA DEFSEC-PL center is to be a specialized ESA unit focused on research, development and implementation of solutions in the areas of civil security, crisis management, Earth observation, satellite data analysis and dual-use technologies,” the ministry said.

The project is part of the upcoming ESA initiative called European Resilience from Space (ERS), which aims to create a “common resilience architecture” based on satellite data, communications, navigation and information analysis using artificial intelligence.

According to the Ministry of Energy and Technology, thanks to the location of the ESA center in Poland, Europe will gain a permanent presence of ESA on the eastern flank of the EU and NATO, which will allow testing and development of technologies in conditions of real threats and will strengthen the resilience of the entire European space security system.

“The initiative envisages the creation of a comprehensive research and analytical center, including laboratories, a data center and training and simulation facilities. It is planned that the ESA center (DEFSEC-PL) will constitute the ESA Center of Excellence in the field of space security and resilience,” the Ministry of Energy and Technology said.

The Center is intended to have complementary tasks to the activities of other ESA facilities and centers, in particular those operating in the field of space security and resilience, in order to effectively and coherently develop European space security and resilience capabilities. According to the Ministry of Development, cooperation with ESA and the European Commission will be conducted in a tripartite formula, with the participation of industrial and scientific partners.

However, the Ministry of Energy and Technology noted that it was too early to talk about details such as the location of the center or the participation of stakeholders such as companies, universities or research units. (PAP)

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