European Space Agency member states used the 347th Council meeting to schedule the next major exploration decision, authorise negotiations for the EPIC mission and extend several national and international programmes. The meeting took place at ESA headquarters in Paris from 16 to 17 June 2026. ESA’s media-session replay features Josef Aschbacher and Renato Krpoun presenting an update on the main outcomes.
The clearest near-term change is the timetable. Member states agreed to hold an interim Council meeting at ministerial level in Italy in December 2026. That meeting will define Europe’s exploration roadmap for the coming years. It is therefore a future policy-setting decision, not the roadmap itself: the priorities and commitments will be established later.
EPIC is now entering negotiations
After approving the EPIC concept in March, member states authorised ESA to negotiate with potential partners and suppliers, according to the Council’s published outcomes. EPIC is designed as a professional-astronaut mission lasting one month, with flight opportunities for ESA astronauts and astronauts from international partner organisations.
This authorisation moves the mission beyond concept approval and into discussions that could shape its partnerships and supply arrangements. It does not, on the information available, establish a final partner list or confirm a flight plan. Those details remain tied to the negotiations that ESA has now been allowed to pursue.
Three leadership changes have scheduled start dates
Renato Krpoun chaired the Council at delegate level for the last time during the June meeting. His successor, Juan Carlos Cortés, was due to begin the mandate on 1 July 2026. That same date marked the planned start of Christine Klein as director of operational control, finance and procurement.
Jean-Luc Trullemans was appointed director of strategy, legal and external affairs, with a start date of 1 January 2027. These appointments give the agency a defined transition calendar while the Council prepares its next ministerial-level exploration decision.
Greece’s satellite programme gains a longer horizon
Greece’s ESA-supported national satellite programme was extended to 2031 with an additional €361 million. The amendment is intended to support further national activities in Earth observation, telecommunications and space situational awareness.
The decision gives those areas a longer programme horizon, but it does not identify individual missions or delivery dates. The concrete effect is an extension of the framework and funding attached to Greece’s national activities, rather than the announcement of a named satellite project.
Cooperation expands across food systems and exploration
ESA also extended its cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization for five years, to 2031. The partnership will support food systems, agriculture and related decision-making through Earth-observation data, connecting the agency’s satellite capabilities with those policy and operational needs.
Separately, the ESA–ISRO cooperation agreement was extended and amended through January 2032. Its revised scope includes human and robotic exploration, space weather and the sustainability of space activities, while maintaining work in space science, Earth observation and operations. The agreement consequently covers a wider set of cooperation areas, but the meeting’s outcomes do not specify individual projects or schedules under that revised scope.
A space-security report will be released publicly
The Council took note of a report on space security and approved its release to the public. That decision adds a forthcoming public document to the meeting’s policy outcomes, alongside the exploration review planned for December.
For readers following Europe’s space programme, the practical picture is clear but unfinished: exploration policy has a date for its next ministerial decision, EPIC can begin partner and supplier negotiations, and several programmes now have longer cooperation horizons. Final project details, including EPIC’s partners and flight plan, will depend on steps that have not yet been settled.
