Space is fully a part of our daily lives even though we are not always aware of it.
Space can now be considered a true "economy" and is a source of jobs and innovations. The recent ESA Ministerial Council in Naples clearly demonstrated that ESA can be a great tool to boost growth and competitiveness.
Despite the difficult economic situation, Ministers from 20 ESA Member States decided to allocate more than €10billion in space and space research over the next 5 years.
This video illustrates some of the economic and social benefits of space in the modern world.

More background information can be found on: www.esa.int

The MPEG-2 files are on the ESA ftp server in the folder entitled: ftp://esa.contentcoders.com/mpeg2/Economy-28112012/