European Space Organization

A Western European agency for space research, to be created as a cooperative venture by eleven nations, was brought a step closer to reality on December 1 when delegates from ten of the countries involved approved the establishment of a preparatory commission for the proposed organization. An agreement to that effect was signed by the governments of Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden at the close of a four‐day meeting at Meyrin, Switzerland, site of the laboratories of the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The delegates of five other governments (Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland) also signed the document, although they did so provisionally since the agreement must be ratified under the constitutional requirements of their countries. The West German delegation was not empowered to sign, but it was anticipated that the Bonn government would soon add its endorsement to the agreement. Spain participated in the early part of the conference as an observer, and was then admitted as a member state.