The Catalan Government makes a move on Pedro Sánchez and goes ahead with the creation of its own Space Agency.

Spain does not have a national space policy steering body, whose powers are exercised by five ministries.  

The cause is not the current coronavirus pandemic or the serious economic crisis hitting Spain. The real excuse for the lack of an official body to centralise and coordinate national space activities is the result of the disinterest shown for over two decades by our nation's highest political authorities in learning what is happening in the space and strategic sphere on a global scale and acting accordingly. 

They are the same ones who conceal their total lack of concern for generating wealth and prosperity for the Spanish people, as their thoughts and actions are dedicated to trying to make headlines in the press, on radio and television and on the Internet the next day. 
 
As if anything were missing to complete the painful framework that year after year leaves Spain without a National Space Plan, we must add the lack of drive and the inability to date of the management teams led by the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque, and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto; the head of the Defence portfolio, Margarita Robles; the head of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera; and the super-minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, José Luis Ábalos, a man in the President's confidence, who is primarily involved in other issues.
 

None of them has launched any initiative to start up, once and for all, even the embryo of a joint body between the five ministries which, equipped with the essential personnel, will enable a first nucleus to be set up which, at the right time, will give rise to the space organisation that Spain requires. Its name is indistinct, whether it is called Agency, Organisation or Space Centre, but it must light the way for the future of an industrial, academic and research sector that generates new technologies, quality jobs and a great capacity to export even in periods of lean times. 

Faced with the Government's parsimony in giving life to its own national space structure, the Catalan Government, on the very day of the presentation of the General State Budget for 2021, has launched what it calls a "strategy" to create a camouflaged Catalan mini-space agency, which it has named Catalonia New Space and in which 18 million euros will be invested in the first instance. 

With the aim of achieving what they call an advanced digital country, the initiative has been made public by the Catalan Minister for Digital Policy, Jordi Puignerò, who has announced that it will be dedicated to promoting the region's space sector and putting satellites made in Catalonia into orbit.
 

He specified that the first two sugar mills would take off in the first half of 2021 to provide institutional services to the Government of the Generalidad. The inaugural pair will be followed over the next four years by a whole constellation, of which he has not specified the number of platforms.  

Jordi Puignerò also argued that the new space economy he plans to establish in Catalonia will create 1,200 jobs and generate a turnover of 300 million euros by 2024. As a prophet in his own land, he has predicted that the new economic sector will develop "two major industries" on Catalan soil. One related to the manufacture of tiny satellites and the other linked to digital services for earth observation, connectivity and 5G. 

The consequences of the measure proclaimed by the Catalan government are worrying. If Catalonia sets up its own model of Space Agency under whatever name it sees fit and Pedro Sánchez's government turns a blind eye, what is to stop Madrid, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Extremadura or the Basque Country - to name but a few of the autonomous communities - from doing the same?
 

Apart from the legal or non-legal nature of the initiative put on the table by the Catalan minister, if the announcement takes shape and the model is copied by the rest of the Communities, what could be the work of the future Spanish Space Agency that will be set up sooner rather than later? Perhaps try to coordinate the autonomous organisations that have already been created, if they allow themselves to be coordinated? Look the other way? Organise working breakfasts with the heads of each Autonomy, to meet again after three months for another working breakfast? 

 The current Spanish Executive, presided over by Pedro Sánchez, now has the floor, because from a practical and legal point of view, this is an important issue. But the lack of decision not to have already established a national space agency is not only the responsibility of the current head of government. 

 His predecessors, Mariano Rajoy and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, must also be lumped together. They did not move a finger to solve the problem of maintaining five ministries dedicated to managing space affairs. In the case of Rodríguez Zapatero, he even made it worse by dividing the same responsibility into two different portfolios.  
 

Our neighbour and beloved Portugal has been able to set up its Space Agency and in April 2019 created Portugal Space. Nothing can be said about France, which set up its large space organisation in 1961 (CNES), Italy in 1988 (ASI) and Germany in 1997 (DLR). The United Kingdom created it in 2010 (UK Space Agency), in a pragmatic format and reduced in terms of personnel and capabilities. 

In 2020, in the first half of the 21st century, it is bordering on the ridiculous that a country of Spain's importance still has five ministries with competences in space matters. European Union countries with much less space industry than Spain, such as Austria, Sweden, Croatia, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria have their organisations, as do nations of the former Soviet Union such as Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. 
 

And what about Africa? Guess what... At least Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Angola, Ghana and our neighbour Algeria, which created it as far back as January 2002, are counting on it! And what about South America? Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and even Venezuela have their own space agencies, policies and strategies.

In Asia, apart from the three giants such as China, Japan and India, some countries have not wanted to be left out. They have an agency in Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, Taiwan and even the Philippines, which established it a little over a year ago. 
 

The current Spanish government approved the first National Aerospace Security Strategy in the middle of last year but has missed several key opportunities to announce the establishment of a Space Agency, the latest being the summit of ministers of the European Space Agency (ESA) held at Seville at the end of last year. 

 In around twenty days' time, another suitable moment will be presented to announce its creation and to establish a new National Plan for Earth Observation by Satellite as part of an initial and genuine National Space Plan. Then we will be able to verify the reality of the Proverb Love means deeds, not sweet words.