The first Cooperation Agreement signed in 2008 was followed by the European Cooperating State Agreement in 2010. The joint review of the 5-year implementation of the ECS Agreement in September 2015, confirmed the success of various PECS projects involving Slovenian entities in ESA’s programmes, especially in Earth observation, life and material sciences and space technology activities.
During these years of cooperation, ESA supported and participated in several space related conferences and workshops in Slovenia. The 6th ESA Training Course on Radar Remote Sensing was successfully organised on 7-11 September 2015 in Maribor with the cooperation of the University of Maribor and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Recently, the Agency organised an ESA Info Day in Ljubljana on 23 March 2016 and an EO workshop on 8 June 2016 in view of identifying future participation of Slovenia in Earth observation activities.
The institutional interface for space in Slovenia is represented by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology. The country is very active in research, technological development and innovation with a longstanding tradition in astronomy and space science.
Slovenia will become an ESA Associate Member following ratification of the Association Agreement. The last Associate Member of ESA was Finland in 1986.