Galileo and Copernicus get a boost from the Commission in new European Space Programme
On 16 December 2020, the Parliament and EU Member States reached a political agreement on the EU space programme, deciding that the new space programme would bring all existing and new space activities under the umbrella of a single programme.
With a budget agreed by the co-legislators, the EU space programme is expected to develop further the current European flagship programmes — Copernicus for earth observation and Galileo and EGNOS for satellite navigation.
In short, with the budget secured under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) — €13.202 billion — for the next seven years, the European Commission will focus on operating and developing further European space flagships, namely Galileo, the European global satellite-based navigation system and Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation programme.
The Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Bretton said that secure connectivity and quantum encryption are among the expected outputs from space applications but also the development of space traffic management, which is meant to protect European satellites from collision.
