On 14 September 2016 in Berlin, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the French space agency (Centre national d’études spatiales; CNES) signed a cooperation agreement for the design, construction and operational phases of the Franco-German climate satellite MERLIN in the presence of Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and Federal Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, as well as Thierry Mandon, French Minister of State for Higher Education and Research.