Ministerial Commissioner for Space Research Dr Orsolya Ferencz from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary spoke at an event at titled ‘Connecting and strengthening women’s networks in foreign and security policy in the Visegrád Four (V4) countries’ in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday, 22 January.
There, she told the audience that the development of the space sector is important for the European Union because it needs to compete with global players in the sector such as China, India, the United States, Russia, Japan and Arab countries, according to the Hungarian state news agency MTI.
Thus, the European Union has started work on a common EU space law which regulates certain aspects of the space sector and will continue to be negotiated during the Polish of the EU. The EU is expected to introduce this as a common regulatory framework in the member states, because space is a common global terrain where national competencies cannot be defined, the politician said.
At the same time, Hungary's space strategy has been drafted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and adopted by the government. One of the key points of this is the Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) programme, which is designed to catalyze scientific progress, she added.
She went on to state that it was important that the cooperation between the V4 countries—Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia—should be more focused on science, as the V4 countries together represent a regional weight within the EU.
This also sends a message to decision-makers and the public that the tech sector, and space technology in particular, has become more valuable in the 21st century, she added.
Ferencz also said it was important to strengthen the presence of women in scientific research, given the sector's huge human resource needs. To achieve this, it is necessary to make it easier for women to enter the scientific field. Orsolya Ferencz said: ‘We want to ensure that the Marie Curie women of the 21st century can take their rightful place in science’.
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