Dissemination of satellite data

See EESC opinion in all languages under Related documents at the bottom of this page

Key points:

In its opinion, the EESC underlines that the subject of this proposed directive is of critical importance to the European Union. The EESC also:

• believes that development of a commercial space industry in Europe has been too slow and calls on the Commission to accelerate the development of policies and a space legislative framework to promote the security, safety, sustainability and economic development of the space sector;
• feels strongly that policy must better support SMEs across the 28 Member States of the Union that are trying to compete and grow in the market for Earth observation data;
• would like to see proposals for a European space procurement policy to support the development of the commercial space sector, which is highly dependent on institutional procurement;
• would like to see policies that promote the education of more engineers, ICT professionals and business graduates for the space industry;
• believes that a more comprehensive European common security policy would help deal inter alia with the overly restrictive control of high resolution satellite data by a few Member States.

Other relevant EESC opinions:

• Opinions on space theme
• Opinion on European Space Policy (CESE 260/2008, INT/360)

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat