A European identity through space — what have we achieved?

Abstract

Thank you for inviting me to this Conference organised by ESPI here in Vienna. ESA and Austria are founding members of ESPI, and I think it was a very good decision to create ESPI, whose importance is growing. The theme of this conference is unusual in space fora, but that also means it is an interesting theme. In fact, the question of identity is a difficult, and even sensitive, subject. In some countries in Europe there is currently a debate on national identity running. As Director General of ESA, you could say that I need to have 18 nationalities — and the number is growing… I’m not an expert on the subject of identity, so Iwon’t try to give you an answer, but I’ll tell you about how I think space can bring something to our identity.