ESA - About ESA - New Member States

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New Member States

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ESA Member States

New Member States

ESA now has 19 Member States. The national bodies responsible for space in these countries sit on ESA’s governing Council: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Canada also sits on the Council and takes part in some projects under a Cooperation Agreement. Hungary, Poland, Estonia and Slovenia are participating in the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS), while other countries are in negotiation with ESA about joining this initiative.

Portugal became ESA's 15th Member State in 2000, Greece became the 16th in March 2005, and Luxembourg became the 17th in June 2005. The Czech Republic formally became ESA's 18th Member State on 12 November 2008. Romania signed its Accession Agreement to the ESA Convention in January 2011, and formally became ESA's 19th Member State on 22 December 2011.

As can be seen from this list, not all member countries of the European Union are members of ESA and not all ESA Member States are members of the EU. ESA is an entirely independent organisation although it maintains close ties with the EU through an ESA/EC Framework Agreement. The two organisations share a joint European Strategy for Space and have together developed the European Space Policy.

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Romania accedes to ESA Convention Czech Republic accedes to the ESA Convention Greece becomes 16th ESA Member State Luxembourg becomes ESA's 17th Member State Luxembourg strengthens its ties with ESA Agreement on Greece's accession to the ESA Convention signed Luxembourg to sign agreement on accession to ESA Convention Greece and Luxembourg join ESA