Integration, Growth, and Services to Benefit Citizens: Celebrating 60 Years of EU and the EU Space Policy

Integration, Growth, and services to benefit citizens: Celebrating 60 years of EU and the EU Space Policy

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Rome became the epicentre of the European Space sector this week, as the eternal city hosted the high-level event ‘Space Policy for EU integration’ organised by the European Commission. More than 200 representatives of the European Space sector, from industry representatives to government, Space agency and EU decision makers, gathered to reflect on three themes: Space as driver of EU integration, Space as a motor of EU growth and Space at the service of EU citizens. Europe’s Copernicus and Galileo flagship Space programmes featured as the stars of the event!

Rome, 16 June 2017.

On 25 March, the European Union kicked off the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome, the primordial moment in the European integration process. Since the historic Treaties were signed, fundamental measures in support of Member States integration have been implemented, amongst which the recent development and implementation of a European Space Policy is a significant contributor.

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The EU Space Policy leaders gather together in the room where in 1957 the Treaties of Rome were officially signed. (© EuropeanCommission)

To commemorate the role of EU Space Policy and programmes in support of European Union integration, Rome hosted a high-level conference on ‘Space Policy for EU integration’ on June 14 and 15 June. Representatives of the Space industry, national and EU policy makers, senior staff of European Space agencies, as well as reference users such as the Italian Civil Protection or the European Environment Agency gathered to celebrate this anniversary and reflect on how Space Policy and flagship programmes act as drivers of EU integration, a motor of European growth and enable applications at the service of European citizens.

The Copernicus programme, to date the most ambitious Earth Observation and monitoring programme in the world, was one of the stars of the event. Pierre Delsaux, Deputy Director-General at the EC’s DG GROW opened the first day, highlighting how the programme contributes to raising awareness of the usefulness and many benefits of Space. Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence remarked during his speech that “Europe can really be proud of what we

3 / 8 achieved with Copernicus in just 19 years from the Baveno Manifesto”, referring to the document which gave birth to the Copernicus programme (known GMES at the time). The Baveno Manifesto was a declaration signed by several European Space agencies in Baveno, Italy in 1998, calling for a long-term commitment to the development of Space-based environmental monitoring services.

La Lanterna di Fuksas hosted the opening ceremony. The European Commission, together with ESA, presented the first images of the Sentinel 2B satellite in this exceptional venue which looked somewhat like a “moon village”. (© European Commission)

Insights on how Copernicus is critical for solving 21st century societal challenges were presented during the opening ceremony. Jan Woerner, Director General of the European Space Agency, who referred to the Sentinel satellites as the backbone of the Copernicus programme, presented to the audience the first images of Sentinel 2B, the fifth Sentinel satellite put into orbit. Chris Steenmans, Head of ICT and Data Management (IDM) at the European Environment Agency emphasised how satellites are a vital and essential asset to monitor the state of the environment and better understand climate change.

From another user perspective, the Director of the Italian Civil Protection, Fabrizio Curcio, showcased the value of Copernicus data and information in support of emergency management activities following the disasters that have hit Italy in recent years. Etna eruptions, earthquakes in Emilia Romagna, landslides and floods, but also extraordinary events such as the Costa Concordia wreckage or the Xylella Fastidiosa phytosanitary crisis in Puglia: in all these emergencies put the Copernicus Emergency Service and the Sentinel data were put under operational, real life and real- time stress test.

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Sentinel 2A and 2B satellites are now providing invaluable data about our planet every day. (© European Commission)

Looking at the benefits of EU Space Policy

The Campidoglio Town Hall, a historic building designed by the famous Italian artist and architect Michelangelo, hosted the second day of the event. The speakers and participants discussed how “Space” serves the European cooperation, fosters Space industry and job creation as well as directly and concretely benefits European citizens.

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Two-day event to show Europe the opportunities resulting from a solid Space strategy. (© European Commission)

The session started with a message from El?bieta Bie?kowska, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, who reflected on the milestones of European Space Policy and programmes, from the signing of the Treaty of Rome to the launch of the European Space strategy last year. She also reminded the audience that with a cumulated Space budget of 7 billion Euros for the current , “Europe is now the second Space power in the world”.

Valeria Fedeli, Italian Minister of Education, opened the event and noted that Space is a “critically important driver for our economy”.

Alongside the Minister, who has responsibility for the Space portfolio, the event featured interventions from many other advocates and practitioners of Europe’s Space Policy. Roberto Battiston, President of the Italian Space Agency, underlined the shared understanding Europe that satellite data are the wealth on which to develop the prosperity of our society and why the Space Strategy needs the concerted participation and the compentences of all European Space players. Jean-Loïc Galle, President of Eurospace, the trade association of the European Space Industry, called upon the European Space actors to preserve the European excellence in Space through the next Multiannual Financial Framework and new forms of business models and strategies. Giovanni Sylos Labini, the Vice Chairman of EARSC, focused on the downstream sector reaffirming that it is time to establish an

6 / 8 industrial strategy for attracting private financing and contributing to the sustainability of the European Space industry.

From industry representatives to EU and Member States’ decision makers, all the speakers emphasised that European Space Strategy is a driver economic growth and an enabler of applications directly benefitting EU citizens.

Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), presented one of the pillars of EU Space Policy: Galileo, the European Satellite Navigation System. He stressed that the Galileo programme will contribute to a prosperous and sustainable future for millions of citizens, and entrepreneurs. Dr Florence Rabier, Director General of ECMWF, celebrated the 60 years of the European Space endeavours and focused on the Copernicus programme. She stated that “the vision and the boldness of the programme can only make anyone involved proud and humbled. Visionary because we all need to acknowledge that there is so much more to learn and explore from Space, and boldness, because funding a Space programme in the midst of so many other deserving fields actually takes courage”.

Past winners of the Copernicus and Satellite Navigation Masters competition presented their forward- thinking ideas and highlighted how these benefit EU citizens and businesses. Grega Milcinski, CEO of Sinergise, presented Sentinel Hub, a global archive of Sentinel-2 data serving as a solution to the technical challenge of storing and processing Copernicus data. Dr Carmine Clemente, introduced GUAPO, a Galileo-based system for early drone detection, classification, and tracking.

Sandro Gozi, Italy’s under-secretary for European Affairs, concluded the event accentuating the importance of and opportunities from EU Space Policy for young people and future generations.

Watch a short video of the event here.

Readers can access the photo gallery of the event here.

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