An informal meeting was held on June 3, 2003, in the ESO Headquarters in Garching between Prof. Catherine Cesarsky, ESO Director General, Dr. Ian Corbett, Head of the ESO Administration, and Prof. Jan Palouš, Director of the Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, assisted by Dr. Bruno Jungwiert.

The discussion was aimed at exploring the possibilities and conditions for the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Southern Observatory. Prof. Palouš was mandated to lead such informal talks by the Czech National Committee for Astronomy.

Both sides agreed on the usefulness of debating this idea in view of the growing complexity of the scientific and technological development in astronomy and astrophysics. A preliminary estimation of the costs that would be incurred by the Czech Republic if it entered the organisation was given by the ESO representatives: 800 000 Euros of annual contribution and 5 000 000 Euros for the accession fee.

While the possibility that the Czech Republic would cover a part of its accession fee in the form of technologies for the ESO facilities is not a priori excluded, it is clear that such an approach would make the negotiations much more lengthy and difficult. Both sides promised to explore the possibility of financing the accession fee from the EU sources, through programmes supporting scientific and technological development and will inform each other of the outcome.

It was held that the next steps must be taken by the Czech astronomical community. First, it must prepare a document clearly expressing its interest in acceding to ESO. This document should contain a brief description of ESO and its facilities, give an overview of the Czech astronomy/astrophysics, state the reasons which lead the Czech astronomers to seek joining ESO, and summarize what the Czech Republic could bring to this organisation in terms of the scientific and technological progress.

The subsequent phase would be an official visit of ESO Director General and other ESO representatives in the Czech Republic. This visit must be well prepared so as to assure a high efficiency. In particular, the above mentioned document must be preliminarily discussed with ESO and submitted to the Czech administration charged with research; the visit should include talks at the highest possible level within the administration of the Czech Republic as well as a meeting gathering not only representatives of science but also of different branches of industry (machine industry, optics, electronics, software/hardware development, etc.) that could potentially contribute to current and future ESO facilities.

Finally, the question of timescale for joining ESO in case of fulfilling the conditions was raised. While it is difficult to give a precise estimate, in an ideal case the negotiations could take only 2-3 years, making it feasible for the Czech Republic to become an ESO member state in 2006, the year when the XXVIth IAU General Assembly will be held in Prague. It should however be emphasized that the entry of any new country to ESO is subject to the vote by the ESO Council that must be unanimous.

approved by Jan Palous prepared by B. Jungwiert, June 4, 2003