On December 15, Jose Mariano Gago, Minister of Science and Technology, and Antonio Rodota, Director General of ESA, will sign an Agreement on Portugal's accession to the ESA Convention. The ceremony will take place at ESA Headquarters in Paris.

Under this Agreement, Portugal will become the fifteenth full Member State of ESA by July 1, 2000 at the latest.

In October 1998, Gago sent the ESA Director General Portugal's formal request to become a full Member State. The request was submitted on June 24, 1999 to ESA's Council, which unanimously approved the principle of this accession. On the 14th of December ESA's council is expected to approve the terms of the Agreement.

Portugal is already involved in some of ESA's optional programmes in the field of satellite navigation through a bilateral cooperation agreement signed in 1996. It has expressed interest in contributing to activities in the fields of space science, technology and applications (remote sensing and telecommunications in addition to satellite navigation). A cooperation programme in the field of training was set up in 1998 to host young Portuguese engineers at ESA establishments.

"We warmly welcome Portugal to the European Space Agency," said ESA's Director General Antonio Rodota, "Portugal, which is already an integral part of the European scenario, will now, as we enter the new millennium, be able to share the benefits of cooperation in space activities," he added.

The other 14 Member States of ESA are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.