The Council of Ministers has approved the Agreement that initiates the procedure for the determination of the physical headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency.
This procedure will be transparent, open and competitive and will respond to the commitment of the Government of Spain with the deconcentration of public sector headquarters to favor territorial structuring.
ESA’s headquarters determination
The creation of the Spanish Space Agency, requested in recent years by the entire Spanish space sector, is announced for the first time in The National Security Strategy 2021, a document of a political nature in the field of security that echoes the worrying evolution of the geopolitical situation and its negative impact on the free access and exploitation of the capabilities provided from space. As a result, it establishes the need to promote measures to defend national interests in an environment as strategic as space, on which the normal functioning of our society depends.
The third additional provision of Law 17/2022, of September 5, amending Law 14/2011, of June 1, on Science, Technology and Innovation, authorizes the creation of the State Agency ‘Spanish Space Agency’. This provision follows the precepts of line 17 of Royal Decree 1150/2021, of December 28, which approves the National Security Strategy 2021, and establishes the need to create a Spanish Space Agency that also includes a national security component.
In accordance with Article 6.1 of Royal Decree 209/2022, “the Council of Ministers may agree on a reasoned basis to initiate the procedure prior to the creation of the entity”, further stipulating that the choice of the headquarters of the Agency shall be made following a transparent, open, competitive procedure and in accordance with the criteria of choice of each headquarters published by the Advisory Committee for the determination of headquarters and established according to the characteristics of the Agency.
The criteria that will inform the choice of this seat will be determined according to the principles set out in article 103.1 of the Spanish Constitution, those established in article 3 of Law 40/2015, of 1 October, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector, as well as territorial structuring.
In application of this forecast, the Council of Ministers, at its meeting held on September 27, 2022, agreed to initiate the procedure for the determination of the physical headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency, prior to its creation and through the urgent procedure, since it is considered imperative that the Spanish Space Agency begin to operate as soon as possible, since with the approval of Law 17/2022, of September 5, the legislator has imposed the deadline of one year for the Government to approve the Statute of the Agency. For operational reasons, it is considered that it is necessary for its physical headquarters to be fixed prior to the approval of the Statute, since the location that houses the entity may condition any of the final characteristics of the entity.
In the same way, and following the provisions of articles 3.2.b) and 6.2 of the aforementioned Royal Decree 209/2022, once the Council of Ministers agreed on the Agreement of Initiation of Procedure for the Establishment of the Physical Headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency at its meeting held on September 27, 2022, the Advisory Commission for the Determination of the Headquarters of Entities belonging to the State Institutional Public Sector adopted, at its meeting of September 29, 2022, the report with the list of criteria that will be taken into account to determine the location of the aforementioned Agency.
