A 2020 vision for European Aeronautics
16 October 2000 - 16 October 2000
Commissioner Busquin's concept of a European research area appears not to stop at cross-border national and industrial collaboration, but reaches skywards too. The European Commissioner for Research has now set up a group comprising 14 influential personalities from the aeronautics sector. Their task is to develop a vision for the European aeronautics and air transport system up to 2020 and beyond and recommend how to achieve it.
The initiative stems from the recommendations of a special advisory group, who reported last spring that European aeronautics would benefit from the definition of a common vision for the various stakeholders.
The group met for the first time on 10 October and are now developing a report that will be presented at the Commission's Aerodays conference in January 2001.
'The members of the Busquin group are extremely well-qualified for their mission, they have profound knowledge of the industry's different sectors and unrivalled experience of operating on a global scale,' reports the Commission. Their plans must look forward to 2020 and beyond because of the long lead times which characterise research and development and production processes in the aeronautics industry, it explains.
In addition to being a pillar of the European air transport system and a vital component of the business and leisure economy in Europe, the European aeronautics industry has an annual turnover of more than 60 billion euro and directly employs over 420,000 people with another 800,000 dependent on the industry's activities. It is also Europe's leading export sector and, says the Commission, 'a crucial asset for the knowledge economy which is the key to Europe's future prosperity. The industry is technologically innovative; it invests on average 15 per cent of its turnover in research and is a primary user of advanced technologies in its products, services, design and manufacture.'
It is also a prime example of how European research efforts can be pooled successfully, in the spirit of a European research Area, championed by the Research Commissioner, Philippe Busquin: some 30 per cent of public funded civil research is now organised at the European level in the EU's Framework programme.
The Members of the panel are:
- Pedro Arguelles
- Manfred Bischoff
- Philippe Busquin (Chairman)
- Francisco Calpardo
- B.A.C. Droste
- Walter Kröll
- Jean-Luc Lagardere
- Alberto Lina
- John Lumsden
- Denis Ranque
- Soren Rasmussen
- Paul Reutliner
- Ralph Robins
- Helena Terho
- Arne Wittlöv
- John Weston
The initiative stems from the recommendations of a special advisory group, who reported last spring that European aeronautics would benefit from the definition of a common vision for the various stakeholders.
The group met for the first time on 10 October and are now developing a report that will be presented at the Commission's Aerodays conference in January 2001.
'The members of the Busquin group are extremely well-qualified for their mission, they have profound knowledge of the industry's different sectors and unrivalled experience of operating on a global scale,' reports the Commission. Their plans must look forward to 2020 and beyond because of the long lead times which characterise research and development and production processes in the aeronautics industry, it explains.
In addition to being a pillar of the European air transport system and a vital component of the business and leisure economy in Europe, the European aeronautics industry has an annual turnover of more than 60 billion euro and directly employs over 420,000 people with another 800,000 dependent on the industry's activities. It is also Europe's leading export sector and, says the Commission, 'a crucial asset for the knowledge economy which is the key to Europe's future prosperity. The industry is technologically innovative; it invests on average 15 per cent of its turnover in research and is a primary user of advanced technologies in its products, services, design and manufacture.'
It is also a prime example of how European research efforts can be pooled successfully, in the spirit of a European research Area, championed by the Research Commissioner, Philippe Busquin: some 30 per cent of public funded civil research is now organised at the European level in the EU's Framework programme.
The Members of the panel are:
- Pedro Arguelles
- Manfred Bischoff
- Philippe Busquin (Chairman)
- Francisco Calpardo
- B.A.C. Droste
- Walter Kröll
- Jean-Luc Lagardere
- Alberto Lina
- John Lumsden
- Denis Ranque
- Soren Rasmussen
- Paul Reutliner
- Ralph Robins
- Helena Terho
- Arne Wittlöv
- John Weston