Brussels, 26/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The 5th Space Council met in Brussels on Friday 26 September 2008 with enough time to adopt a marathon 15-page resolution on making progress in EU space policy. The document includes progress in certain areas, like funding GMES, military applications and space monitoring, but otherwise it bears witness to persistent lack of ambition from Europeans on all other aspects of space policy. An overview of the document follows.
The Space Council is aware that a plan to boost Europe's position in the space industry came to life with the EU space policy, in order that the EU can be a world leader. The document notes that all the EU's space policies help meet the targets of the United Nations' extra-atmospheric space treaty and fully respect the principles set out in the treaty, namely: - exploring and using extra-atmospheric space for the good and in the interest of all countries and the recognition of extra-atmospheric space as belonging to all of humanity; - using extra-atmospheric space for solely peaceful ends; - promoting international cooperation in exploration and use of extra-atmospheric space.
The Council believes that existing mechanisms should be boosted that coordinate EU space expertise and European investment funding by the EU and national and inter-governmental sources, and mechanisms should be introduced to improve synergy between civilian and defence space programmes, respecting the specific demands of both sectors, including decision-making powers and funding mechanisms. The Council wants to - promote the drawing up of an appropriate regulatory framework in order to facilitate the rapid emergence of innovative, competitive upstream services, particularly to ensure continual access to the spectrum for all space applications; - preparing suitable EU funding mechanisms and instruments, taking account of the specific nature of the space industry and the need to reinforce its global competitiveness and the competitiveness of its industry and to have a balanced industrial structure; allowing appropriate long-term EU investment in space research and the implementation of constant space applications for the use of the EU and its citizens, particularly by considering all the consequences of action in the space domain in the EU's future budget.
The Council hailed considerable progress in the Galileo and GMES programmes. It urges the Commission to examine the legal implications of the fact the European Union is becoming the owner of the tangible and intangible assets it funded in space applications like the assets of the Galileo and EGNOS programmes, particularly with regard to questions of liability. The Council notes that an action plan should be drawn up to implement an EU GMES programme in order to ensure continuity in GMES services and the critical observation data they require. It recommends adopting a permanent funding plan for the GMES programme, based on an assessment of all its funding needs and the definition of a budget strategy at both national and EU level, taking account of the three different stages: the R&D phase should be funded from R&D budgets, the transition phase should be funded by R&D budgets and operational funding, and the operational phase funded by special funding for operations involving users. The Council welcomed the proposal unveiled by the European Commission for a new preparatory action in the preliminary draft budget for 2009, facilitating future funding of the GMES programme's operational phase; the European Commission's plan to examine all these issues in a report to be adopted by the end of October 2008, after consulting the main stakeholders and agreeing with the ESA on an overarching approach to programmes for the GMES' space component; the ESA director general's plan, after consulting ESA member states and the European Commission, to submit a draft call for tender for the second segment of the space component of the GMES programme to the ESA Council at ministerial level, which will meet in November 2008.
The Council urges the European Commission to carry out a study to assess needs vis-a-vis access to all the standardised data and the increasing calculation powers, along with the means of meeting such needs, taking account of existing capacity and networks in Europe. It welcomed the fact that the ESA and EUMETSAT have together draw up a draft programme for third generation Meteosat (weather satellite) programmes (MTG), to be submitted to the ESA Council at ministerial level in November 2008, and then to the EUMETSAT Council; the MTG programme MTG will mainly intervene in the domain of operational meteorology and will contribute to GMES, to climate surveillance and the detection of climate change at global level.
When it comes to space and security, the Council highlighted space activities' important contribution to the CFSP/CFDP, including the Petersberg missions and therefore including the security of EU citizens. It stressed that to boost its ambition for a world leadership role in space, the EU should introduce an EU level mechanism to monitor its space infrastructure and space debris, based at first on existing national and European resources and making the most of cooperation that can be drawn up with countries outside the EU and those countries' resources. It stressed the need to define ways of improving coordination between civilian and defence space programmes in the field of long-term measures; to introduce a permanent ability to meet the needs of EU users for global surveillance of the space environment, thanks to coordinated activity in Europe and possibly with other partners; to recognise the EU's dependence vis-a-vis foreign suppliers for certain technologies and critical space components, drawing up strategies to ensure the EU's access to these technologies and components and take practical measures to continue to reduce the EU's dependency.
With regards to space exploration, the Council welcomed the launch of ESA's Columbus laboratory and the successful demonstrations of the Jules Vernes automatic transfer vehicle, as genuine EU technological development programmes and essential elements for ensuring the EU's access to, and sustainable use of, the International Space Station (ISS).
The Council said, however, that space exploration is a political and planetary policy and the EU has to act within a world programme without there being the slightest monopoly or control by any particular country, with the various stakeholders participating in line with their own capacities and priorities. It welcomed the European Commission's idea of holding a high-level political conference on a long-term global vision of space exploration, which would open a genuine debate on the role of the EU in this global enterprise, based on relevant preparatory studies coordinated by ESA to assess domains of EU excellence and draw up various scenarios vis-a-vis an EU contribution and the related cost and planning issues.
After the Space Council, French Research Minister Valérie Pécresse welcomed progress in “space Europe” citing achievements like (1) the gradual introduction of a space surveillance system, needed to protect satellites from the danger of crashing with space junk; and (2) the agreement on the need to ensure long-term funding for the GMES global surveillance system for security and the environment. Maria Van Der Hoeven, Dutch Economy Minister and Chair of the ESA Council, said that space was of growing interest because several countries had indicated that they want to join the European Space Agency. EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen said that truly remarkable progress had been made in a year. He mentioned the high-level conference that the European Commission is planning to organise to identify the EU's future role in the domain of space exploration.
The next stages include: - the submission in October 2008 of a Commission communication on GMES/Copernicus governance and funding; - practical application of the principles set out in the Council's conclusions document by the ESA ministerial council that will be meeting on 25-26 November 2008; - the adoption of a conclusions document on the Commission's communication on GMES by the 2 December 2008 Competitiveness Council. (O.J./transl.fl)