The First Common Framework between ESA and the EC was approved in 1984 for the years 1984 to 1987. In a meeting held on 7 February 1989, Reimar Lüst, ESA Director General, and Jacques Delors, the President of the Commission, decided to strengthen the relations between ESA and the European Commission. The idea to create Joint ESA-EC Working Groups followed that decision.
By the 1990s, Europe was purposefully moving towards developing a coherent programme on space.
In the Fourth Ministerial meeting in Munich in November 1991, delegates emphasised the increased need for international cooperation and decided on the European long-term space plan (1992-2005). A few months later, the Maastricht Treaty was signed on 28 February 1992, creating the European Union. At the Ministerial Council meeting held in November 1992 in Granada, Spain, delegates approved a resolution on international cooperation. Just prior to that, in September, Lüst and Delors had agreed that the next, Fourth ESA/EC Framework Programme would include improvements between the space and the non-space sectors in Europe.
The main objective of the ESA meeting at Ministerial Level, held on 11 and 12 May 1999 in Brussels, was to elaborate a coherent European space strategy.

Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish

Textual