EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy visits Paranal

Today, Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, visited ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Borrell is the Commission Vice-President in charge of coordinating the external action of the European Union (EU), which involves strengthening the EU’s ties with other countries around the globe. 

During his visit, Josep Borrell met with Luis Chavarría, ESO Representative in Chile, Bárbara Nuñez, ESO’s Regional Relations Officer and Maxime Boccas, Head of Paranal Observatory’s Maintenance, Support and Engineering Department. Borrell was accompanied by León de la Torre, EU ambassador in Chile and a committee of the EU.

His visit to Chile aims to support economic and scientific collaboration between Chile and the Member states of the European Union. ESO is an illustration of this cooperation, for example, the Observatory and Chile signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation for the construction and operation of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, the largest optical telescope ever built. 

ESO’s Paranal Observatory is located in the remote Atacama desert, Chile. It is 1200 km north of its capital city, Santiago, and is 2635 metres above sea level, offering some of the darkest skies in the world. It is home to several telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), and the VLT Survey Telescope.

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory