EU Space Ministers once again stressed the importance of making better use of the satellite data produced by the European flagship programmes Copernicus and Galileo, during an exchange of views at the ‘Competitiveness’ Council on Friday 2 December.
“The advanced technology Galileo and Copernicus satellite navigation and Earth observation systems have been developed and deployed. For the benefit of over 500 million European citizens, the space data they provide is magnificent”, welcomed Martin Kupka, the Czech Minister of Transport, at a press conference. Before qualifying: “We have access to a huge reservoir that remains largely untapped in the EU, while our data is sometimes exploited by our competitors”.
For example, the Czech Minister reported a consensus to develop a systematic approach and to develop the EU’s capacity to exploit satellite data. For Member States, it is important to connect non-space markets to space markets in order to benefit from this data. Two major sectors were repeatedly mentioned: agriculture and transport, particularly maritime transport.
Asked by EUROPE about the difficulties identified by the Czech Presidency of the EU Council, Mr Kupka said that there were administrative obstacles, but also a lack of skills and a general lack of awareness of the existence of such data and its usefulness.
Furthermore, the Czech Minister echoed the insistence of several Member States, including Belgium and France, on the issue of European sovereignty over data affecting the security of the EU. “For other suppliers of space data, we need an alternative system providing a secure connection between governments of Member State”, he added.
Need for a European regulatory framework
In addition to the need for better communication and governance, some Ministers also considered the creation of a new European regulatory framework to harmonise data and its interoperability, as did Italy.
In general, all Ministers stressed the need to strengthen cooperation between the EU Space Programme Agency (EUSPA), the European Commission, the European Space Agency (ESA) and national agencies, as well as cooperation between the public and private sectors, academia and research. The example of the Copernicus Forum has been used many times as a good practice to take into account the needs of end-users. Several Member States emphasised the role of SMEs and the inclusion of ‘small’ Member States.
Data use is a reoccurring issue in space policy (see EUROPE 11540/10). In the previous legislature, this was already a priority of the space strategy developed by the former European Commissioner for Internal Market, Elżbieta Bieńkowska (see EUROPE 11535/10). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)