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The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
ESA Procurement Regulations (ESA/REG/001,REV.5) in force since 18 July 2011 were replaced with new Contracting Regulations (ESA/REG/001,REV.6) on 1 January 2025.
Requests for Ombuds intervention on the basis of a formal process as laid down in ESA Procurement Regulations (replaced by Contracting Regulations as from 1 January 2025) and/or Best Practices are extremely rare (on average once in three years).
The majority of requests to the Ombuds are informal requests via letter or e-mail asking for mediation/intervention from the Ombuds to find an amicable settlement on best effort and within a reasonable time-frame (on average ten per year).
Most prominent topics:
Late payments and disputes on level of payments
Treatment of licenses and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
De-briefing of tender evaluation results
Issues regarding General and Specific Clauses & Conditions
Fairness in contract award
'Informal' Requests are dealt with as either:
Case Studies for specific well-identified complaints These are Ombud confidential dossiers and require approval of the originator(s) to allow the Ombud to mediate/intervene on their behalf with the opposite party.
Generic Queries covering generic complaints These are Ombud open dossiers of generic interest, the originator(s) are not disclosed unless prior permission has been given. The Ombud intervenes/negotiates on behalf of interest groups at Customer level, i.e., within Eurospace or with ESA.
Recommendations These are Ombud recommendations for consideration to the Head of the ESA Contracts proposing changes to ESA procurement & contract regulations to alleviate/remedy industrial concerns/issues.
The role of the Ombud is foremost to ensure fairness in ESA procurement and where possible to facilitate amicable settlements for Industry-to-Industry and ESA-to-Industry disputes.
The Ombuds' mediation is free of charge and their independence and confidentiality avoid public exposure.
The majority of issues are settled within a period of 3–6 months.
Companies are invited to contact the Ombud even when in doubt as to whether the issue falls under the Ombud's area of competence.
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