The New Year sees the Romanian flag now flying at ESA sites alongside those of ESA’s other Member States, after Romania officially became ESA’s 19th Member State on 22 December.

The Agreement on Romania’s accession to the ESA Convention was signed on 20 January 2011 in Bucharest, by Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, Teodor Baconschi, Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Marius-Ioan Piso, President and CEO of the Romanian Space Agency.

Following this signing, the process of ratification by the Romanian government began. This process was concluded last year and, as of 22 December, Romania deposited its instrument of ratification of the ESA Convention in Paris, becoming an official ESA Member State.

Romania’s cooperation with ESA is long standing. In 1992, Romania was one of the first Eastern European countries to sign a Cooperation Agreement in the field of the peaceful use of outer space with ESA, paving the way for Romanian participation in several research projects with other European countries.

Cooperation between ESA and Romania was strengthened further in October 1999 with the signing of a five-year Framework Cooperation Agreement, and the signature of the European Cooperating State Agreement in 2006.

Romania has participated in several ESA missions, such as Cluster, Herschel, Planck, SOHO and Gaia with co-investigators, and in Earth Observation activities (EDUSPACE software), microgravity and exploration (SURE) and technology activities (the IAP telemedicine project).

Read the article on the ESA website.