ESA Council meeting at delegate level takes place in Switzerland

The Council is the highest body of the European Space Agency (ESA), within which its member states decide on institutional, financial and administrative matters and determine the programmes the organisation carries out in space. It meets several times a year at delegate level and, in general, every three years at ministerial level. Renato Krpoun, head of the Swiss Space Office at the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), will remain Chair of the ESA Council at delegate level until the end of June this year.

Implementing the key decisions taken at the 2025 Ministerial Council meeting

At the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level in Bremen in November 2025, the ministers for space activities of the ESA member states agreed on the programmes for the coming years and approved a record sum of over EUR 22 billion. Based on its Strategy 2040, ESA aims to make Europe's space sector more autonomous and competitive. It is also strengthening Europe's security and defence by establishing dual-use infrastructure. The next step is to put the strategy and the selected programmes into operational practice. These topics were discussed at the Council Meeting at delegate level in Interlaken.

Switzerland plays an active role in ESA and the space sector

Switzerland is a founding member of ESA and has been actively involved in almost all of its programmes since 1975. It carries out its space activities mainly through ESA. Swiss companies and research institutions make excellent technical and scientific contributions to ESA missions, from which Swiss citizens also benefit in everyday life. Basic services such as weather forecasts and disaster warnings, as well as applications such as navigation and telecommunications, rely on satellite infrastructure.

• ESA - Key outcomes of the 345th ESA Council meeting
• ESA-Ratstagung auf Ministerebene 2025: Weichenstellung für ein resilientes und wettbewerbsfähiges Europa im All (German version)