The 2nd Council of Mayors of the 2015 Presidency of the Community of Ariane Cities (CVA) was held on Thursday 5 November at the European Space Agency (ESA) under the Presidency of François Ringuet, Mayor of Kourou and 2015 CVA President. The following are some of the highlights of the Council meeting:
- The handover took place between the 2015 CVA Presidency of Kourou, French Guiana, in partnership with French space agency CNES, and the incoming 2016 CVA Presidency of Hardthausen am Kocher in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, represented by Mayor Harry Brunnet, in partnership with the “Lampoldshausen Ariane Forum” (*).
- It was confirmed that the 2017 Presidency of the CVA would be held by the City of Toulouse, together with Telespazio France, its industrial partner within the CVA.
- The CVA membership of the City of Cannes and of Thales Alenia Space/Cannes were voted through unanimously. In that connection, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard was represented by 2nd Deputy Mayor Josiane Attuel, responsible notably for the ”Cannes, University City’’ project, training and institutional partnerships and the firm Thales Alenia Space by Jean-Michel Capelli, Managing Director of the site of Thales Alenia Space in Cannes.
- A vote was taken on the composition of the CVA Bureau for 2016.
This second meeting of the 2015 CVA Council of Mayors was followed in the afternoon by a conference “L’Espace, de nouveaux moyens pour demain” (Space, new resources for tomorrow) at the Palais du Luxembourg under the patronage of the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, with the support of the French Parliamentary Group on Space (GPE). Attending were a large number of space industry representatives as well as CVA and GPE Members.
The conference was addressed by Alain Gournac, Senator for the Department of les Yvelines and 1st Vice-Chair of the GPE, by 2015 CVA President François Ringuet and by CVA General Delegate Marc Toussaint, after which two presentations were given: “Moyens spatiaux au service de la Lutte contre les trafics et de l’Observation des flux migratoires” (The use of space-based resources to combat trafficking and to observe migration flows) by Guy Duchossois, Advisor to the European Commission on the Copernicus Programme, and “New Space : nouvelles statégies, nouvelles technologies, nouveaux services et nouveaux acteurs” (New Space: new strategies, new technologies, new services and new actors) by Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES.
The conference was then brought to a close by Françoise Laborde, Senator for the Department of Haute-Garonne and Member of the GPE, then by Geneviève Fioraso, Deputy for the Department of Isère, former Minister for Higher Education and Research, with responsibility for space matters, and Member of the GPE. Also attending was Jean-Marie Bockel, President of Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération (m2A), former Minister, and 2013 CVA President.
The Community of Ariane Cities (CVA) is a non-profit-making organisation set up in 1998 to bring together both European towns and cities – known as “Ariane Cities” – and industrial firms active in the European space transportation sector. The CVA aims to strengthen cooperation between these entities, inform local political figures and members of the public of space activities in Europe, and contribute to the training of the space sector professionals of the future. It currently has 42 Members.
(*) The “Lampoldshausen Ariane Forum” was set up by the German town of Hardthausen am Kocher, Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, the German Aerospace Center DLR / Lampoldshausen , the Economic Development Agency of the Heilbronn Region (WFG Raum Heilbronn GmbH), the University of applied sciences Heilbronn (Hochschule Heilbronn), the Kocher Valley artisanal and industrial park (GIK), and the administrative District of Heilbronn in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The aim of this Forum is to promote technology transfer and the European space sector.
