Europe prepares for a common space strategy
Phillipe Busquin, European Commissioner for Research, and Loyola de Palacio, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Transport and Energy, joined the Director-General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Mr Antonio Rodotà, at the beginning of February to discuss a common space strategy for Europe. Senior managers from ESA joined them at the Agency's Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, where talks touched on the Galileo satellite navigation programme and on monitoring hazardous cargo movements at sea. The European Commission and ESA began elaborating their plans for a common European space strategy after resolving in 1999 to achieve this by the end of 2000. Close consultations with all the interested parties will take place over the coming months. Commissioner Busquin is also now emphasising the importance of coordination and concertation in this field as part of the recent communication, which looks to a 'European Research Area'. Galileo is a joint EU/ESA initiative to develop a European global satellite navigation system. The programme is currently in the detailed definition phase. Once completed, Galileo will provide autonomous European traffic management and telematics infrastructure, generating valuable economic benefits for European equipment manufacturers and service industries and creating jobs. Ms de Palacio highlighted the importance of this programme, which is an essential contribution to developing an integrated European transport policy, to be confirmed by the Council of the EU by the end of this year. The Commissioners also showed interest in a new initiative proposed by Mr Rodotà involving harnessing space technology to monitor hazardous cargo movements at sea and research on detecting oil spills. Positioning equipment is to be installed on cargo for operational tracking of oil tankers and other vessels carrying hazardous materials. This will be included as a testbed activity under Galileo. The initiative will also serve to draw up and enforce European legislation in this area and increase transport safety. It will also assist decision-making on ship routing and planning and help with the preparation of, and updates to, maps of sensitive coastal zones.