The hearing, organized by the EP’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence, follows the recent proposal by the European Commission for an EU space policy. Projects at European level would reduce costs, „an idea dear to the European Parliament’s heart”, according to Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (Poland), chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. „Space is one of the most popular areas that the Constitutional Treaty envisaged turning into a European policy”, he added.

Karl von Wogau (Germany), chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, argued that Europe „needs information satellites for military missions, to protect its external borders, to protect sensitive infrastructure and even to warn of tsunamis”. Some Member States, such as France, Italy and the United Kingdom, already have observation and communications satellites (Syracuse 3, Skynet 4 and 5, Satcom).

In a resolution adopted on 16 November 2006 the European Parliament called for the European Defence Agency (EDA), in conjunction with the European Commission, to launch integrated research and development processes in areas that will strengthen integrated and coordinated civil-military approaches, for example for air and satellite information systems and integrated telecommunications systems.

Guillaume Dandrieux, member of the EU general staff, and Xavier Pasco, of the Foundation for Strategic Research (Paris), advocated the integrated use of the different satellites intended for space observation, telecommunications and positioning, lending support to the idea that the difference between civilian and military needs is blurring, as was seen with the tsunami of December 2004 and the disarmament in Banda Aceh.

Galileo and GMES
The only developed tools at EU level today are Galileo, which is suffering from delays that are more political than technical, according to speakers, and GMES (Global Monitoring on Environment and Security) – a joint project of the EDA and the EU designed to rationalize Europe’s earth observation activities. The Member States spend €500 million a year over an average of 15 years on telecommunications satellites. A similar sum will be needed to replace the military communications satellites which will reach the end of their lives in 2017. Experts calculate that €4 billion will be needed over the next 10 years for information gathering and communication.

This roughfigure includes complex platforms such as Helios II as well as smaller ones. Experts who spoke at the meeting backed the idea of giving Galileo a military dimension in case the US Defense Department should cut the GPS signal for security reasons. For the European satellite positioning system to become the backbone of the European Security and Defence Policy, Giovanni Gasparini, of the Instituto Affari Internazionali (Rome) argued that „Galileo must be supported by the European institutions with a clear chain of command”.

Parliament’s budgetary role
On the financing of GMES, which receives research funding under the 7th framework programme, Paul Weissenberg, director at the Commission’s DG Enterprise, urged MEPs to increase GMES’s operational expenditure at the vote on next program. François Roelants du Vivier, chair of the Belgian Senate’s foreign affairs committee, called on MEPs for „fewer resolutions and more action to convince the Member States to take an interest in space”. He added that national parliaments can exert pressure in the various capitals of the EU when they vote on their national budgets. (EP Press)