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(2019) The participation of Greece in the European Space Agency (ESA): An interview with an ex-delegate of Greece to ESA
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(2019) The participation of Greece in the European Space Agency (ESA): An interview with an ex-delegate of Greece to ESA
The interview was conducted in Greek and translated in English by Nicholas Argyros, EST Ambassador for Greece (2019 – 2020)
It is that time of the year! World Space Week has come again and in order to celebrate and honour it properly, we managed to have some basic queries about Greece’s participation in the European Space Agency (ESA) answered. We discussed thoroughly with Michael Kotsias, an ex-delegate of Greece to ESA from 2011 to 2017, about ESA’s operation and contribution to space technology development.
What duties and responsibilities did you have as a delegate of Greece to ESA?
I was a delegate to the Space Telecommunication Committee, to the Programme Board on Satellite Navigation (PB-NAV and to the Advanced Research Telecommunication Satellites (ARTES). Furthermore, I was part of the Joint Board on Communication Satellite Programme (JCB), part of the financial and manufacturing committees and part of the Council, which is the upper organ, making decisions about ESA. The main delegates of the Ministries participating in ESA participate in this Council.
There is not only one delegate, the General Secretary of Greece is an ex-officio and supplementarily, I was a delegate myself, as someone had to be specialised in the topics discussed. Ultimately, I was part of the most committees. Hierarchy-wise Council was first, then the Administrative and Financial Committee (AFC), then Industrial Policy Committee (IPC) and then JCB and PB-NAV.