31/10/2018 (Agence Europe) – In an October policy paper, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) expressed its concern following "discussions" to integrate the Copernicus programme into the scope of the future EU Space Programme Agency, which will succeed the current GSA with a broader mandate, as proposed by the European Commission in June (see EUROPE 12035). For the industry, introducing a new actor into the governance of the terrestrial observation program could have strong "disruptive" effects and would represent a real "challenge" for the industry, which will have to review its institutional relationships, according to the document. In addition, the organisation considers that Copernicus’ budget should be increased. For the full document: https://bit.ly/2ETfeV8. (PH)