16 Nov 2016

ESA’s Ministerial Council will be held in Lucerne, Switzerland on 1–2 December. Ministers in charge of space activities from the 22 ESA Member States and Canada will meet to decide on future space activities for Europe.
The meeting will further the vision of a United Space in Europe in the era of Space 4.0.
A background note on the objectives and programmatic aspects tabled for discussion was issued on 14 November 2016 (ESA PR 42-2016).

Accreditation
Media wishing to attend must be accredited by Wednesday, 23 November. To obtain a personal access badge, press credentials are required for accreditation.
The passport or national ID card listed on the accreditation form must be shown at the venue. No other means of identification will be accepted.
For accreditation, please fill out the form at:
https://myconvento.com/public/event_register/index/1504856
Address of event: Culture and Convention Centre Lucerne (KKL), Europaplatz 1, CH-6005 Lucerne
For this new venue, ESA is not arranging accommodation for media.

Press programme (provisional; all times CET)
Thursday, 1 December
07:30
Opening of Press Centre and accreditation formalities
08:45–09:00
Opportunity for photographers to visit the conference room
09:00
Council meeting at ministerial level starts (not open to media)
10:00
Press briefing: introduction to the Council deliberations
12:45
Official group photo of Ministers (for professional photographers only)
13:00
Lunch break
15:00
Meeting resumes
18:30
Expected end of meeting
20:30
Press Centre closes

Friday, 2 December
07:30
Opening of Press Centre and accreditation formalities
09:00
Council meeting at ministerial level starts (not open to media)
13:00
Expected end of meeting, followed by a press conference with the ESA Director General and the outgoing chair(s) and incoming chair of the Council at Ministerial Level. Meeting not expected to go beyond 15:00
18:30
Press Centre closes
All requests for interviews should be addressed to ESA Media Relations at the Press Centre.

ESA TV
ESA TV will provide:
Videos 21–29 November explaining what is at stake in Lucerne for each ESA programme Directorate will be transmitted via ESA TV platforms (ESA TV ftp, EbS).
ESA TV will edit highlights before, during and after the conference and put them in a dedicated folder on ESA TV FTP news site: ftp://tvdownload.esa.int/ Login: esa/ Password ftp4esa
All details will be available at: http://www.esa.int/esatv/Television

Images
The latest high-resolution images can be found at:
ESA’s Multimedia Gallery: http://spaceinimages.esa.int/Images
ESA’s Photo Library for Professionals: http://www.esa-photolibrary.com
Media image queries can be directed to spaceinimages@esa.int

Social media
ESA will cover events on Social Media via the following channels:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ESA Hashtag #ESACM16
Additional coverage will be available via:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanSpaceAgency
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ESA_events
Questions may be asked via https://www.reddit.com/r/esa/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ESA Hashtag #ESACM16