European Commission and ESA sign grant agreement for GMES
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission have signed a EUR 48 million grant that will enable the space agency to provide Earth Observation data for the pre-operational phase of Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. The signing of the grant marks the first concrete cooperation between the two bodies on GMES. GMES is an EU-led initiative with the objective of developing the continent's environmental monitoring capability. This will be done by combining ground- and space-based observations. ESA's role is to develop the space component, which involves five satellites, as well as the ground component, and to coordinate data access to the satellites. Following the signing of the grant, Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen said: 'Globally, changes in environmental conditions lead to increased risks for economical, social and political stability, which further affect European security. 'Coordinated, comprehensive and sustained global monitoring of the Earth system is one of the key factors to respond to this challenge. GMES is the European solution for the needs of citizens in Europe to access reliable information on the status of their environment.' The grant will be used for supporting the GMES services, which currently include services for land, the marine environment and emergencies. Two pilot service projects also address security and atmospheric composition, as well as other downstream services. The grant will also be used to fund an analysis of the services' requirements, the negotiation of data access agreements with contributing missions, and coordination with data providers and service providers.