On Thursday 29 August, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, called for the resources allocated to the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen) to be raised to be sufficient to meet its ambitions.
SatCen’s budget for 2023 was just under €30 million.
“Since I took office, demand for the Satellite Centre’s services has more than doubled, with almost 80% of its products delivered within 24 hours”, stressed Mr Borrell in a blog post, warning that the exponential growth in demand was putting increasing strain on the Satellite Centre's financial resources and the capacity of its staff. “Over the past four years, budget contributions from Member States could not keep pace”, he lamented. He went on to add: “If we are to remain at the forefront of geospatial intelligence and keep up with rising demand, SatCen’s resources must match this ambition”.
Following the informal meeting of defence ministers in Brussels on 30 August, Mr Borrell announced that they had agreed that what was needed was “a strong, well-funded Centre to support the EU’s ambitious security and defence agenda”.
On his blog, the High Representative also explained that in the long term, the EU could extend SatCen’s mandate. “With its extensive archive of spatial images from Ukraine, SatCen could also assist in gathering evidence of war crimes. Additionally, the Centre’s capabilities could be harnessed by Europol and other law enforcement agencies in the fight against human trafficking, or in supporting partner countries, such as those in West Africa, in combatting illegal fishing fleets”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)