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aeroGRID.nl – the new aerial imagery website with the most current NL aerial photos

Tuesday 18 december 2007 sees the launch of Aerodata’s completely new website for online aerial photography, www.aerogrid.nl (Dutch only at this moment).

Aerodata is also known as supplier of the aerial imagery on Google Earth and Maps in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Now with this own & unique website www.aerogrid.nl Aerodata offers access to the most complete and up-to-date aerial photos of the Netherlands. The basis is made up of a detailed, nation-wide aerial image dataset of 2007.

On top of that many cities have been added with more detail going up to 4 cm.

During development lots of attention was given to the user friendliness. The site is very easy to navigate, is very transparent and utilizes a very fast Flash viewer.

For the user it should be a special, fun and interesting experience to be able to browse through the aerial photo database that Aerodata had made available through a fast web server.
It only takes 5 steps from image selection to image download and attractive pricing is maintained.

Professional users who want to access the aerial imagery in a GIS/CAD system, for reproduction or for other purposes, will find their liking in the aeroGRID® Pro services.

These can be found at www.aerogrid.nl/pro.

The database will regularly be updated with brand new, high resolution imagery making it inevitable that aeroGRID® will become the reference for aerial photography of the Netherlands.
Early 2008 will mark the launch of comparable website for Belgium and France with aeroGRID® products.

Source

EARSC Board is glad to welcome FLYBY s.r.l. as new Member in our Association

On EARSC behalf, we are certain that FLYBY will contribute actively to the aims of EARSC enthusiastically involved in coordinating and strengthening the Earth-observation chain and promoting the European Earth observation industry in programmes such as GMES and GEOSS.

EARSC Membership is nowadays increasing which encourage us in the Board of Directors to continue to do our best to fulfill the tasks that you as members could expect of the association. On EARSC behalf, Welcome!

FLYBY

Flyby was funded in 2001 with the main aim of assimilating the results obtained within the remote sensing scientific community, improve their theoretical models and transform them into applications for the public and into commercial products. Optical EO satellite data has been a valuable source since the beginning and allowed for the delivery of several products based on following information:

- on ground solar Energy for photovoltaic plants – on ground UV radiation intensity – on ground cloud index – sea water transparency and temperature – sea concentration of various substances – detection and classification of sea oil spills – sea floor bathymetry – forest fires detection

Flyby collaborates with important public bodies and private companies, both involved either at the level of users in European funded project or as partners in commercial projects.

More information about the new member at FLYBY

EARSC Membership

EARSC membership represents the entire spectrum of the Earth Observation industry including all sector chain: providers, stakeholders and users. For our members, the annual membership dues are a cost-effective way to stay informed, promote their company, political and institutional representation, networking opportunities with industry players and help support the future of Earth Observation. Industry together could transform activities into meaningful action on behalf of our sector.

EARSC membership is composed by

CORPORATE MEMBERS: Any commercial European company or partnership offering and undertaking consulting and contracting services or supplying equipment in the field of remote sensing which is based in a European Country which contributes to the European Space Agency or which is a member of the European Community shall be eligible for membership.

OBSERVER MEMBERS: Companies from countries associated to European programs but not eligible for full membership. Any active representative organization, institution or association party in the field of Earth observation and not engaged in commercial or profit-making activities such as Public/Governmental Bodies, International Organisation, International Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Private Non Profit Organisation/Foundation, Network/Association/Aggregation of Intermediaries(profit or non profit), Business Association, Universities, other?) with interest in Earth Observation.

More information on membership

EARSC EVENT 2008: March 19th 2008 – Brussels, Belgium


In collaboration with EC-GMES Bureau and ESA

GMES has been hailed since 1998 and the Baveno Declaration as one of the flagships of Europe not only as a giant step forward in the monitoring of the environment but also as a key political framework and a possible boost to Europe in terms of scientific and technology advances as well as in terms of employment along the lines of the Lisbon Agenda.

Ten years later this initiative is becoming concrete with the study of the overall GMES architecture, the analysis of needs in terms of information access, the set up of the sentinels space segment, the finalisation of the INSPIRE directive and the initiation of the Fast Track Services.

The so-called upstream public service sector seems to be engaged in a serious preparation to operate operational services. The situation is much more confused concerning the downstream services sector. In particular the road ahead for SMEs is not clear and the dialogue with the GMES decision makers is quite limited.

The question legitimately raised by Industry is thus:
Is GMES an opportunity for the service industry?

The EARSC Workshop organised around these topics with participations from small and large industries as well as from European and national institutions and users will be an occasion to shed light on these issues and to draw with all parties involved a possible roadmap to make GMES an opportunity for the service industry. Among others, the workshop will face issues related to applications industry access to information about GMES data and service availability and schedule, and ongoing and future support to application development and deployment by the public sector and large corporations. The service industry sector is indeed a key for the success of the GMES Programme as a whole not only inside Europe itself but also to allow the benefits of the European GMES to be shared worldwide.

Draft programme will be prepared by January. If interested please send an email to secretariat@earsc.org to keep you informed about the event .

Company/Organization:
Name:
Function:
Email:
Telephone:
Mobile:
Fax:
Full address:
Country:
Website:
Interest:

In this issue of EOMAG, EARSC will have the opportunity to feature an interview with Mr. Ed Parsons from Google Earth Europe. First of all, thank you very much for taking some time from your busy agenda and giving us the occasion to talk about some aspects relevant for the geo-information sector.

ROLE OF GOOGLE EARTH

Mr Parsons, first of all, could you briefly describe us your current responsibilities in the Google Earth project?

I am the Geospatial Technologist for Google, a technology evangelism role focused on Europe, and the emerging markets for Google in the Middle East and Africa. Technology evangelism in this context is all about communicating our vision for information and in particular geospatial information and establishing relationships with organisations who could become potential partners who have useful information Google can help make accessible. I also have a role in the wider product management team at Google making sure that our products and services meet the needs of local markets, taking into account local social and legal conditions and user expectations.

Could you comment on the steps from Google to move forward geo-information?

Google as I’m sure you and your readers are aware is “new” to the Geospatial Information and Earth Observation Industries, although many of the people working on our Geo products, myself including, have considerable experience within the industry. I think Key to Google’s approach to Geo-information is to understand our overall goal, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. In achieving this we see geo-information both as a type of information to organise, but also as an organising principle itself.

For a long time professionals in the management of geo-information have recognised the value of using geographic or geospatial information to help organise other types of information, however until relatively recently the ability to do this by having access to the appropriate framework data-sets and tools was prohibitively expense.

What Google, and the other large search companies have done is to lower the barrier to access these tools, so that today almost any user of the internet can finally access geospatial information using simple tools such as Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Maps for Mobile. This has come about because of technological advancements in information systems and devices, but also because of innovations in business models which allow users free access to global data-sets which are costly to collect and license.

MARKET STUDY

Google Earth is free online to the consumer, where is Google going with this product? Who funds the programme? How much does it cost? Which benefits do you get from the use? Is Google Earth a value for money?

Google Earth is a wonderful tool for exploring our planet and understanding the patterns and relationships of human activities with the natural environment. For the vast majority of users Google Earth is free to use, although there are options for use within organisations where there is a need for more control of the type of data used. For commercial reasons we do not disclose the operational costs of the system, although I’m sure your knowledgeable readers can appreciate the considerable costs involved.

What is the main purpose of Google Earth service? And what are the differences with your competitors?

Google Earth is both a tool to search, visualise and explore our planet and a tool to allow communities to create and share information that is important to them and that is related to particular locations. Many users start by finding their home, school or office and then explore the places they know, many may then add information that is important to them and may then share that information with other users using the many developing online communities. Many large multi-national organisations and universities use Google Earth as a tool to publish large complex data sets or to communicate the results of scientific research.

Many of us a Google are most proud of the use of Google Earth to highlight significant global issues and help explain them to a mass-market, issues including Global Climate Change and the Genocide in Darfur are of particular note I believe.

I think key to the success of Google Earth is its technical brilliance, which brings almost instant access to global data-sets and also its community of users who extend the capability of the system by adding their own information and sharing their ideas

LINKS WITH EO

Do you think that EO industry lacks awareness on capabilities of the sector? do you believe on strategies to gather the public and user awareness? What about branding ideas?

No, I think the EO industry clearing recognises the value of the “Mass-Market” and the importance of awareness of the capabilities of Earth Observation, in particular I think the focus of imagery companies on the branding of their products for use by the news media has been successful. I personally think more could be done to highlight the important contribution been made by Earth Observation to the Science of Climate Change.

Google earth certainly does some work on knitting the datasets together but for the most part, the company is not in the data creation business, how do you see the EO industry in Europe? Do you think in possible synergies within EO industry? How industry should be evolving? Maybe as providers?

Yes that is correct, Google tries to license data wherever possible to meet our data needs, as such we view the EO industry as a customer of it. As with most customers we are interested in increasing value for money!

Which could be the lessons learnt from Google that Earth Observation could implement?

Simplification !!

Simplification of the interfaces between the user and supplier both from a technology point of view but also in regards to business processes and licensing relationships.

DIALOGUE WITH EO INDUSTRY: COOPERATION & PARTNERSHIP

What is your opinion about Global Earth Observation System of Systems, GEOSS and Global monitoring environment and security, GMES? how can market for GMES should be created in Europe?

There can be no use of Earth Observation less important at the moment that monitoring the changing environmental conditions of our planet, and as such the original GEOSS mission of 2005 is laudable. Time will tell if this approach to co-ordinating activities to bring the necessary comprehensive view of the Earth is the correct one, whatever approach is adopted we recognise the importance of making the observations collected available to as wide a possible audience as quickly as possible as a key goal, and one which we hope to be able to assist.

FUTURE & SOCIETY

What are the main things you hope to see GOOGLE EARTH accomplish in the next 10 years?

That is an almost impossible questions to answer, we know we still have many challenges ahead of us if we are to achieve our goal of organising the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, we are only just scratching the surface of potential resource of geo-informational that exists, and there is still much more data to collect and organise as new missions and sensors become available. Parallel to increasing the amounts of information available, we need to continue to develop the tools that make this data as accessible as possible, when and wherever there is a user need for it.

Let’s take one step further away, what next for the geospatial marketplace? where do you see the main opportunities for the EO industry in the years to come?

I believe there are two challenges for the EO industry to really reach out to the mass-market commercial sector, imagery needs to be made available as frequently and reliably as possible, requiring a more frequent revisit capability, while at the same time reducing the cost of image acquisition. It will be interesting to see the impact on the industry of technological advances which overlay the capabilities of satellite based Earth observation with aircraft based sensors.

I see massive potential in Micro-Satellite based systems.

There is a lot of interest both within the geospatial technology industry and the consumer side. How do you see this technology connecting and impacting the citizen? How popular has the imagery layer been?

Google Earth and similar technologies have had a massive impact on increasing the awareness of citizens to the potential of Earth observation technologies, the result of more that 250 million people downloading Google Earth is that most of us no longer have to spend as much time explaining what we do. We need to be aware however that the level of understanding of the Science of Earth observations is limited.

How do you see EO and Geo-information sector in the years to come?

I think the professional / scientific sector of the industry will continue to mature and it will be supplemented by a new community of mainstream users who in many ways are already beginning to influence the expectations of the established industry in terms of user interface design and expectations of information accessibility.

CONTACT

-Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google
-Cordy Griffiths, Communications and Public Affairs, Google

Belgrave House, 76 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9TQ

Acquisition of Multimap will help Microsoft deliver new, expanded services on the Web.

Microsoft Corp. has acquired Multimap, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The acquisition gives Microsoft a powerful new location and mapping technology to complement existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform, with future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The addition of Multimap enhances Microsoft’s position as a leading provider of mapping and location platform services,” said Sharon Baylay, general manager of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the U.K. and globally. We are thrilled to welcome Multimap onboard.”

One of the best-known online mapping companies worldwide, Multimap provides a publicly available personal mapping service at www.multimap.com, as well as a range of integrated business services.

“Partnering with Microsoft gives us a world of new opportunities to build our mapping services into new technologies and applications,” said Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Multimap. “As one of the world’s foremost technology brands, Microsoft is in a position to bring even more value to the Multimap service and give people everywhere new, exciting and fun ways to get from point A to point B.”

Multimap will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, as part of the Virtual Earth and Search teams in the Online Services Group. The acquisition is the latest in a series of moves as Microsoft seeks to expand its online services to deliver software, services, and premium content and applications to consumers and businesses.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Marisa Olson (pr@microsoft.com)
Phone: 503.443.7000

Source DirectionsMag

“Briefing to European EO Service Industry on the planning of future ESA EO exploitation activities (2008 – 2012)”

The report summarising the main outcomes from the 4th October “Briefing to European EO Service Industry on the planning of future ESA EO exploitation activities (2008 – 2012)” is available here for download.

Briefing Summary Report

Further comments/feedback on the future EO exploitation activities (EOEP-3) presented are welcome.

Frequently asked questions

Part One: The Commission’s December 2007 Strategic Report

What are the main conclusions of the Commission’s report?

First, European and national level reforms are delivering results and contributing to growth and jobs at present and for the future. The national Implementation Reports demonstrate that Member States have taken many of the necessary steps to implement their programmes and to reinforce them in the light of the Commission’s assessment last year and of the European Council’s commitments.

Second, it is essential that Member States implement outstanding reforms. Although there is a broad consensus on what needs to be done, the pace of delivery has been uneven. Not all Member States have undertaken reforms with equal determination. Reforms in some areas, such as opening up energy and services markets and tackling labour market segmentation, have lagged behind. Some signs of “reform fatigue” have become apparent over the last twelve months.

Third, both the EU and Member states will need to implement further reforms to sustain solid economic growth in the future and help the EU withstand adverse developments in the global economy. For the EU level, action is needed on key priorities, including a Small Business Act, the creation of a European Research Area and an affordable patent system, and closing further gaps in the Single Market in the services and energy industries

What are the main new policy elements in the package? What proposals is the Commission making to the Spring European Council?

The Strategic Report calls on EU leaders at the 2008 Spring European Council to give fresh impetus by agreeing a limited number of high-impact actions in the four priority areas and then by ensuring their governments follow up those commitments.

These include: increasing high-speed internet access to achieve a 30% connection rate of the EU population and connection of all schools by 2010; setting national targets and policies to raise the basic skills of young people and reduce early school leaving; adopting a comprehensive European Small Business Act; improving framework conditions for innovation through an integrated patent jurisdiction and a single affordable patent; completing the internal market for energy; setting mandatory energy reduction targets for government buildings; and systematically including energy efficiency as the one of the award criteria for public procurement.

The package also reinforces the external dimension, combining openness with the legitimate defence of the European interest. Dialogue with third countries will be strengthened and streamlined, with a clearer focus on globalisation issues of mutual interest such as regulatory convergence, migration and climate change. In future the Commission will adopt a single annual report on market access, identifying countries and sectors where significant barriers remain.

The new and innovative Community Lisbon Programme focuses more clearly on the EU’s own contribution to the four priority action areas referred to above. It includes among its 10 key objectives, in addition to contributing at European level to achievement of the new goals the Commission is asking the Spring European Council to endorse: the rapid adoption by the European Parliament and the Council of the Commission’s “blue card” proposal for a skills-based immigration policy; further steps to integrate EU financial services markets and enhance their stability in the light of the current turbulence; and the promotion of a sustainable industrial policy.

Does this reinforcement of the Strategy set out in the Report require amendments to the Integrated Guidelines?

No. The above reinforcements do not require amendment of the Integrated Guidelines agreed unanimously by Member States in 2005, so the Commission is proposing those Guidelines should be unchanged for the next cycle. However, the text accompanying them is amended in order to reflect the changes of emphasis.

The package makes clear in particular the need for an even higher priority for the social dimension, education and skills, information and communication technologies, flexicurity, energy and climate change.

What do this year’s country specific recommendations cover?

The recommendations the Commission is proposing primarily cover areas already signalled as needing further attention last year such as fiscal consolidation, financial sustainability, labour market reforms, competition in network industries and services, investment in R&D and improving the regulatory environment. A proposed recommendation signifies that in the Commission’s view, though there may have been some progress, the Member State concerned still needs to reinforce or speed up its efforts in this area.

On the basis of a Commission proposal, the Council adopted the country specific recommendations in March 2007. Structural reforms take time to implement and only a preliminary assessment can take place at this stage. On this basis, the report maintains most of last year’s country specific recommendations and points to watch.

A full set of the recommendations is available in MEMO/07/569.

What exactly are the changes to the country specific recommendations this year?

In most cases, steps have been taken towards meeting the commitments contained in the country specific recommendations agreed collectively by the Member States last year. However, more remains to be done and most of these recommendations remain in place. In a few cases – Germany, Italy and Spain – the number of recommendations has decreased while for Slovakia, last year’s recommendation on tackling long-term unemployment has been replaced with a recommendation to improve the regulatory environment. No Member States have additional country specific recommendations. The conclusions of each country chapter are collected in MEMO/07/569.

What is the evidence that the brighter economic outlook is due to reforms implemented under the Lisbon Growth and Jobs Strategy?

The Lisbon reforms have not been the only factor. But there is strong evidence from the Commission’s economic modelling that they have made an important contribution and can make a bigger one in the future. What is more, reforms have helped increase the underlying potential estimated growth rate of GDP in the euro zone by 0.2% since 2005 to some 2.25% in 2007: in other words to improve the long-term prospects for prosperity. A more complete analysis is available in the Annex to the Strategic Progress Report.

Is the Commission proposing recommendations for every Member State?

No. For a small number of Member States [Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden], the Commission did not propose country specific recommendations in its 2006 report. For this year, there have been no major development which would warrant country specific recommendations for these Member States. However, in the country chapters covering these Member States, as in all the others, the Commission points to policy areas on which it will be particularly important to focus over the next couple of years.

What are the conclusions of the chapter on the euro area?

The chapter concludes that the euro area countries have engaged in substantive structural reforms to tackle their economic, social and environmental challenges, although some have responded more robustly to some challenges than others. Although important for all EU Member States, structural reforms are especially relevant for the economies in the euro area. Primarily aimed at creating more growth and jobs, structural reforms also enhance integration and the adaptability of euro area economies and synchronise its business cycles.

Overall, in which policy areas is more progress most needed?

Although there has been some good progress on reducing budget deficits, the opportunity to use the relatively strong growth conditions to reduce structural deficits further has not been fully seized, especially in the euro area.

Europe is still lagging behind other leading economies both in investment in information and communication technologies and in terms of their use to enhance productivity.

Opening up network industries and services to competition has been slow and important obstacles to market entry remain. Some Member States lag behind with the implementation of internal market directives.

There have been important steps forward in implementing the EU’s better regulation agenda but some Member States need to do more to reduce administrative burdens and improve the business environments.

Almost 6.5 million new jobs have been created in EU-27 in the last two years with 5 million jobs expected to be created up to 2009. Yet, many labour markets remain segmented, with well-protected insiders and more precarious outsiders on contracts with uncertain prospects.

About half of the Member States have developed – or are developing – policies on the basis of a flexicurity approach. Yet the policy response remains fragmented.

While it is encouraging that Member States have now set ambitious targets to increase R&D spending, the real proportion of GDP spent on R&D in the EU has failed to keep up with recent stronger economic growth and decreased from 2.0 % of GDP in 2000 to 1.85 % of GDP in 2006, with large differences between Member States. This moves the Community further away from the EU target of 3%, although recent policy reforms aiming at boosting R&D spending will take some time to feed through.

Which Member States are doing best?

The Commission does not want to take a “Eurovision song contest” approach and rank Member States. This serves no purpose and would depend on subjective judgements, given that it is not current performance but future potential that is key. But it is encouraging to note three trends that have continued since last year.

First, those Member States which rank highly in current international competitiveness tables, for example the Nordic countries and Ireland, are resisting the temptation to rest on their laurels. They are aware that continuing to reform now is the key to maintaining their performance in the future.

Second, those larger economies whose success is particularly important in creating prosperity elsewhere in the Union – France, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain – have all moved forward, albeit from different baselines and at different stages of implementation.

Third, while most still have much work to do to catch up, those Member States that joined in 2004 are also moving forward, with visible increases in their standard of living, though again the pace of progress varies.

Which Member States are doing badly?

All Member States deserve credit for having made progress, often in challenging political circumstances. It would not be accurate or useful to point the finger and say a particular Member State is doing badly. But as in previous years there are big differences in the depth and pace of reform. It is crucial over time to close this gap because all of our economies are interdependent. Prosperity in one creates prosperity in others. We are moving gradually in the right direction, towards a situation where every Member State performs to its full potential, but still have a long way to go.

Has there been progress in investing European regional funding in achieving Lisbon Strategy goals?

Yes. Programmes analysed for the Communication “Regions Delivering Lisbon through Innovation and Cohesion Policy 2007-2013”, which forms part of the package, are an encouraging statement of intent: less developed regions (Convergence Objective) plan to invest 65% of funds available to them on Lisbon-oriented priorities, and the others (Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective) have earmarked 82% of their investment, exceeding targets in both cases. Innovation is a major theme, and features strongly in Cohesion Policy programmes. Keeping up the momentum in policy debate on innovation is a key objective.

What happens after the Strategic Report?

As usual, the Report will be submitted to EU leaders at the Spring European Council which will adopt conclusions on the way forward. The European Council is asked to endorse the country specific recommendations and the reaffirmed Integrated guidelines which will then be formally adopted by the Council. The Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs is built on a partnership approach, which recognises that, to address the common challenges, each level needs to play its full part. Therefore the action proposed in the Report will need to be implemented both by Member States and at Community level, where the new Community Lisbon Programme already reflects this need.

Further Implementation Reports will be prepared by Member States by October 2008. The Commission will present its 2008 Annual Progress Report around the turn of next year.

Part Two: Background

What is the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs?

The European Union’s Lisbon Strategy to modernize Europe was first agreed in 2000 and relaunched in 2005, with a clearer focus on growth and jobs. The Strategy is based on a consensus among Member States and organised around 3 year cycles. It is now making a strong contribution to Europe’s current economic upturn.

If the EU makes the right economic reforms now, it can secure a prosperous, fair and environmentally sustainable future for Europe. It can ensure that our economies are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities offered by globalisation. It can put Europe in a strong position to cope with demographic changes that will mean more older people and fewer young people of working age in our societies.

How does the Lisbon Growth and Jobs Strategy work?

It is based on a close partnership, with a clear division of responsibilities and a strong emphasis on maximising the synergies between the Community and the national levels and between different economic policy areas. Member States undertake reforms at national level based on National Reform Programmes presented in 2006 and based on the policy guidelines (“Integrated Guidelines”) agreed collectively by all Member States in 2005 and due for review in 2008. These National Reform Programmes cover a three-year period.

Each year, Member States produce reports on the implementation of their National Reform Programmes. The latest implementation reports were presented in October 2007.

All Member States have appointed Lisbon Co-ordinators (“Mr or Mrs Lisbon”) charged with driving the strategy forward in their own Member State and involving stakeholders in its implementation. The Commission assists, monitors and assesses this national level reform process.

In conjunction with this, a programme for European level reform – the Community Lisbon Programme – is implemented.

Furthermore, the 2006 Spring European Council agreed four priority areas as the pillars of the renewed Strategy (knowledge and innovation, unlocking business potential, investing in people and modernising labour markets, energy/climate change).

It also agreed on a number of actions, such as making it possible anywhere in the EU to start-up a business within one week or less. Progress on these actions has been good.

In March 2007, the Spring European Council took a further important step by endorsing country specific recommendations – proposed by the Commission in its December 2006 Progress Report – for the first time. These are Treaty based. By endorsing them, Member States have agreed collectively on what each needs to do. The Commission’s assessment of progress at national level focuses – this year and in future – particularly on the implementation of these recommendations and of the other “points to watch” included in the country chapters.

What is the structure of this year’s Report? What are the components of the package?

The first part of the report to the 2008 Spring European Council sets out the Commission’s proposals for taking the Lisbon Strategy forward during the next three years.

The second part consists of an assessment of progress made by each Member State (and the euro area) in the implementation of its National Reform Programme (NRP) and country-specific recommendations, as adopted by Council.

The Commission’s Strategic Report is based on its assessment of the Member States autumn 2007 Implementation Reports, on its general monitoring of progress and bilateral contacts with Member States, and on the Commission’s own review of progress with the Community Lisbon Programme.

A detailed assessment of progress by policy area can be found in a companion document. The Lisbon package furthermore contains:

* a proposal to update the country-specific recommendations and ‘points to watch’ adopted by the Council in May 2007 (see ;
* a proposal for a Council recommendation to re-affirm the Integrated Guidelines for growth and jobs for the next three-year cycle;
* a renewed Community Lisbon Programme for European level action for growth and jobs, more clearly focused on the four priority areas agreed in 2006: investing in people and modernising labour markets, improving the business environment, especially for SMEs; knowledge (education, R&D and innovation); energy and climate change.
* an analysis on the reorientation of the structural funds in support of growth and jobs.

Why is this year’s report called a Strategic Report, and not an Annual Progress Report as in previous years? What are the differences from last year?

This report marks the transition to a new cycle in the implementation of the Lisbon Growth and Jobs Strategy, from 2008-2010. It therefore takes stock of progress over three years, draws lessons and proposes policy lines for the next few years – in other words, it has an enhanced strategic component. It also includes proposals for the reaffirmation of the Integrated Guidelines – which have worked well as broad drivers of policy – and for changes to the text accompanying those guidelines, to reflect the need to update the Strategy in the light of experience so far and to respond to changing circumstances.

The other differences from last year are that the Report for the first time includes country assessments for Bulgaria and Romania, and that it is accompanied by a renewed Community Lisbon Programme.

What are the main achievements so far under the Community Lisbon Programme?

The first Community Lisbon Programme for 2005-2008 generated significant results. For example, significant progress has been made towards improving the legal framework of the single market, through the adoption of the Services Directive and the implementation of the Financial Services Action Plan. The Commission has also successfully driven forward its better regulation agenda to cut unnecessary costs and remove obstacles to innovation.

Substantially greater amounts of Community funding have also been made available for growth and jobs. The new regulatory framework for the Cohesion policy programmes will make some €210 billion available for investment in growth and jobs over 2007-13, an increase of over 25% compared to 2000-06. Overall 87 actions of the 102 announced in the original 2005 CLP had been delivered by mid-2007.

How is it possible to assess the performance of “new” and “old” Member States, or large and small ones, according to the same criteria?

It is not possible and we have not tried. We recognise that each Member State has a different starting point and different traditions. We are not assessing their current economic performance as such but progress in implementing and reinforcing their National Reform Programmes – in other words in getting in shape for the future, to take advantage of the opportunities of globalisation and to meet the challenges of ageing populations. Thus, the assessment for each Member State is based on the implementation of their own National Reform Programme.

Is there a correlation between the number of recommendations and how well the Commission thinks a Member State is doing?

Clearly the Commission only proposes a recommendation where it thinks that an important challenge exists and that the Member State concerned needs to step up its efforts to meet that challenge. So if there are several recommendations, this means there are several important challenges. But there is not necessarily a direct correlation between the number of recommendations and the overall level of progress.

Even for Member States with no recommendations, the Commission points out areas where there a particular effort is needed and which therefore could give rise to recommendations in the future. A Member State with one recommendation in a key area may need to address that area particularly urgently, to avoid progress in other areas being held back. And while a Member State with several recommendations clearly faces a range of tough challenges, it may also be doing well in some areas. The country chapters identify significant strengths in every national programme.

Many people are not aware of the Lisbon Strategy. What can be done about this?

The Commission will continue to reinforce its efforts to get the message across – directly or in cooperation with stakeholders – to a wide public that the growth and jobs strategy is a positive vision of wider opportunity, not a message of doom, gloom and austerity.

But for this to succeed, it is essential that Member States also make stronger efforts to inform stakeholders and citizens of the importance of the Growth and Jobs Strategy, and in particular to demonstrate that as a result of the interdependence of Europe’s economies, successful reform in one Member State contributes to prosperity everywhere. All Member States, even those already in the vanguard of reform, have a strong interest in the success of the Strategy.

Within the context of the implementation of the “Communicating Europe in Partnership” Agenda (see IP/07/1435), and in particular in taking forward voluntary management partnerships with those Member States who wish to do so, the Commission will encourage Member States to give a very high priority to the Growth and Jobs Strategy. It will do the same in working with other EU institutions, notably the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

It will also continue to lay a strong emphasis on consultation, ownership, and communication in evaluating progress at national level. This aspect is covered in every country chapter.

Why is the Strategy now more clearly focused on Growth and Jobs?

Growth is not an end in itself, but it is a prerequisite for being able to maintain and increase Europe’s prosperity and thus for preserving and enhancing our social models.

Growth must be sustainable – while there is sometimes a short-term cost to protecting the environment, in the long term the costs of not tackling environmental issues such as climate change would be far greater.

We need more jobs for two reasons – first because far too many people’s lives are still blighted by unemployment and second because only by getting more people into work can we ensure that our societies cope with demographic change. Older populations mean higher pensions and health care costs and those need to be financed by the working population.

In a nutshell, what are the most important steps for achieving more jobs and growth in Europe?

There are many pieces in the jigsaw puzzle. It is the whole policy mix that counts. We need to make Europe a prosperous, low-carbon society.

That means budgetary sustainability, better regulation and the right tax and benefit systems. We need to improve education and training to allow more people to reach their full potential, for their own sake and that of society as a whole. We need to invest in research to maintain our comparative advantage relative to competing regions.

We need more competition to make sure that research feeds through into real innovation, as companies strive to stay ahead in highly competitive markets. We need to make our economy more adaptable to change and more resistant to external shocks. This need has been further highlighted by the recent trend for high commodity prices and by financial market instability at global level.

We need more people of all ages in employment to finance social spending as our populations age. We need to use energy more efficiently and sustainably and to negotiate better with countries which supply us with energy. We need to tackle climate change at home and act globally to ensure that responsibilities in this are taken worldwide.

All of these things require European and national level reforms.

What are the main targets under the Growth and Jobs Strategy?

Before the 2005 relaunch, there were too many disparate targets. Although Member States are encouraged to set their own targets in several areas, we now have a streamlined and simplified process with only two EU level headline targets,: investment of 3 % of Europe’s GDP in research and development by 2010 and an employment rate (the proportion of Europe’s working age population in employment) of 70% by the same date.

Of course, these are not the only issues that matter – but achieving both is absolutely central to getting our economies into shape for globalisation.

And there is progress towards both of them. All Member States have set ambitious R&D targets and most have undertaken important reforms to help them get there. If all of these targets are met, the EU will reach an R&D level of 2.6% of GDP in 2010 (up from 1.9% in 2005). This would be a significant improvement even if the key EU target of 3% (with the private sector contributing 2%) is only reached later.

Employment rates are expected to rise to around 66% in 2008 compared to 63% in 2004. This leaves us with more work to do to reach the ambitious 70 % target for 2010 but remains important progress.

Has the management of the Strategy always worked in this way?

No. The Strategy was relaunched in 2005. Before that there was more complicated system with a plethora of different targets and reporting mechanisms and fewer synergies between the different strands. Some progress was made but overall the results were not fully satisfactory. So the Commission proposed a relaunch, based broadly on the recommendations of a mid-term review led by former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok. EU leaders agreed to this proposal at the 2005 Spring European Council.

Why do we need a European strategy when many of the necessary measures have to be taken at national level?

Our economies are interdependent. Prosperity in one Member State creates prosperity in others. Sluggishness in one Member State holds others back. So Europeans need to work together to achieve economic reform, sharing policies that work.

In addition, national policies alone are not enough to allow the Growth and Jobs Strategy to succeed. European Union policies are also central to the Strategy. For example, an efficient internal market, the right policies on external trade, the updating and enforcement of EU competition law, well-targeted European research programmes, the effective use of EU Structural and Cohesion funding and the application of EU environmental policies are all crucial to delivering the prosperous and modern society which is the ultimate aim of the Lisbon Strategy. The Community Lisbon Programme sets out the EU-level priorities for the next three years.

What is the Commission’s role in the governance of the Strategy?

First, it proposes the Integrated Guidelines for reform, which are then approved by the Council and form the broad basis for Member States’ National Reform programmes.

Second, in its Annual Progress Report the Commission assesses the content and implementation so far of National Reform Programmes, allowing stakeholders and citizens to see how far each Member State has got.

Third, it works continuously with Member States to help them exchange experience, learn from each other and implement, update, and improve their National Reform Programmes, taking into account the strengths and weaknesses identified in the Annual Progress Report. This role as a catalyst for mutual learning, building consensus that feeds into national as well as European policies is sometimes low profile, but has been central to the Commission’s work since the European Community began.

Last but not least, the Commission ensures through its role in driving forward the Community Lisbon Programme that policy making and funding activities at European level best serve the goals of growth and jobs.

What is the link between the Growth and Jobs Strategy and regional policy and the Structural Funds?

The link between the Growth and Jobs Strategy and the Structural Funds is very close and this is clearly demonstrated by the inclusion in this year’s Strategic Report package of the communication entitled “Regions Delivering Lisbon through Innovation and Cohesion Policy 2007-2013”. This assesses the extent to which new Cohesion Policy programmes aim to move forward the implementation of the renewed Lisbon Strategy, notably by respecting a commitment to earmark funds for growth and jobs.

In a single market, structural and cohesion funding will be spent on procuring works, goods and services from all over the EU. That will benefit all Member States and not just those directly receiving the most substantial amounts of structural funding.

The Commission continues to encourage Member States to ensure that regional aspects are fully taken into account in National Reform Programmes and that regions are consulted on the development of the programmes. This is the case in most Member States.

Is the EU maintaining its target of becoming the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010?

The key aim is getting into a rhythm of high sustainable annual growth and low unemployment by 2010. If, for example, the US does even better that will not mean the EU strategy has failed. Rather, it will be good news for us all. Nevertheless, it is crucial that Europe closes the competitiveness gap with the US – that goes hand in hand with getting the EU in shape to benefit from globalisation.

What matters in the end is that we in Europe can maintain and enhance our quality of life – and that of our children and grandchildren – in the context of globalisation, demographic change and environmental challenges. That is what the Lisbon Strategy is ultimately about. And it is working.

Source EUROPA

The ‘Lisbon Declaration on GMES and Africa’ has been adopted at a meeting of organisations and governmental European and African bodies and entities under the aegis of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Lisbon, Portugal.

The Lisbon Declaration falls under the wider framework of the Africa-European Union (EU) Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space of the Africa-EU Action Plan 2008 to 2010. It calls for the first draft of an action plan for establishing the partnership between GMES and Africa to be submitted to EU and African constituencies by the end of 2008.

The European Commission (EC) and the Commission of the African Union will then lead a consolidation process aimed at submitting the action plan for endorsement at the next EU-Africa Summit foreseen for the end of 2009.

“Africa is relevant for Europe, and space is relevant for Africa.”

GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is a European Union-led initiative in partnership with ESA to combine ground- and space-based observations to develop an integrated environmental monitoring capability. ESA’s role within GMES is to implement the dedicated GMES space component, which involves developing the five Sentinel satellites, and to coordinate contributions from Member States, EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) and other mission operators.

Opening the 7 December ceremony, ‘Space for Development: the case for GMES and Africa,’ Dr Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programme, said: “Africa is relevant for Europe, and space is relevant for Africa.”

“Sustainable development is top on the agenda of the international community, and it is impossible to address this challenge without space assets. The ESA strategy for Africa is therefore the result of a natural evolution of cooperation in the context of the global concerns we face today.”

Cooperation between Africa and Europe is not a novelty for ESA. “What topic is better suited to reflect the challenges of Africa and the world in the coming century than the blue gold: water,” Liebig said. “Water scarcity is the root for harsh living conditions for millions of individuals as it is the root for political conflicts. ESA is answering the challenge of water management in Africa with the TIGER initiative.”

ESA launched the TIGER Initiative in 2002 following the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The initiative’s primary objective is to help African countries overcome problems faced in the collection, analysis and dissemination of water-related geo-information by exploiting EO technology. Since then, TIGER has involved more than 150 African organisations investigating the various stages of the water cycle in some 15 projects across the African continent.

In his address, Liebig stressed the experience gained through past cooperation with TIGER, highlighted some major environmental problems facing Africa, such as water scarcity, desertification, loss of biodiversity and food security, and underscored the importance of African participation in order to make the initiative a success.

“Africa will need to focus their user requirements,” Liebig said. “The central sentence of the ‘Maputo Declaration’, which calls for the EU to plan an extension of its GMES European initiative to Africa, refers to two actors: the EU to make data and tools available, and the African countries to implement policies for sustainable development in an operational way.”

The meeting was preceded by a technical workshop held on 6 December by the EC, ESA and EUMETSAT. The aim of the workshop was to bring African, European and international users and organisations together in order to prepare the technical groundwork for today’s meeting.

GMES is being developed in steps through the introduction of pilot phase services, starting with three fast track services (land, marine, emergency) by the end of 2008. Eleven initial services, which could be successively deployed to support a wide range of needs, have already been identified.

“The very reason for developing a GMES capability in Europe lies in the political recognition of the usefulness of space for improving life on Earth,” Liebig concluded. “This political recognition of space makes today’s meeting here in Lisbon possible – and proves to be the best ground for achieving a positive, lasting result for the benefit of Africa and Europe.”

Source ESA

ESA and the European Commission have signed a €48 million grant that will allow the space agency to ensure the coordinated and timely supply of satellite-based Earth Observation data for the preoperational phase of GMES from 2008 to 2010.

The signing of the grant marks the first real cooperation between the two in the GMES framework.

The GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme is a European Union-led initiative in partnership with ESA to combine ground- and space-based observations to develop an integrated environmental monitoring capability.

ESA’s role within GMES is to coordinate and implement the dedicated GMES Space Component, which involves developing the five Sentinel satellites, and Ground Segment and to coordinate data access to the Sentinels and to other missions mainly from ESA Member States which contribute to fulfilling of the GMES requirements.

Following the signing of the GMES Space Component Data Access (GSC-DA) grant, European Commission (EC) Vice-President Günter Verheugen, who is responsible for enterprise and industry policy, 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.”

Dr Volker Liebig, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programme, signed the agreement on behalf of ESA. “The data access grant is the first step of a wider GMES cooperation with the EC, using ESA’s 30 years of experience in collecting and distributing necessary Earth Observation data to users,” Liebig said.

The data access grant will support the GMES services, which today include three fast-track services focusing on land, marine and emergency, two pilot service projects focusing on security and atmospheric composition, as well as downstream and other public GMES-related services.

The data access grant considers the EO data needs from the GMES services and covers the analysis of the services requirements, the negotiation of data access agreements with contributing missions, as well as the development and pre-operations of coordinating functions linking EO data providers with service providers.

Under the grant, ESA will coordinate the data provision activities from the EO contributing missions and will act as Data Provider for its own missions as well as its Third Party Missions.

Source ESA

Indian Space Research organization (ISRO), the country’s premier centre for research and development in the field of space science and technology, will soon launch a satellite called Carto-2A to assist Cartography applications including remote sensing, ground water development etc.

Hyderabad: Indian Space Research organization (ISRO), the country’s premier centre for research and development in the field of space science and technology, will soon launch a satellite called Carto-2A to assist Cartography applications including remote sensing, ground water development etc.

Speaking at the launch of India’s first students’ chapter of Astronautical Society of India, ISRO Deputy Director R K Rajangam said, “The satellite will reach the earth’s orbit by the end of January 2008 or the first week of February”.

Rajangam added, “Any object wanting to be seen from less than one metre will find an application in the Carto-2A satellite. This would be particularly useful in infrastructure development of urban areas etc. The satellite will be launched using the PSLV launch vehicle.”

ISRO has also moved a step ahead by planning to launch commercial satellites from Sriharikota. The first commercial satellite for Israel will be launched on January 2nd, 2008 from Sriharikota.

Speaking about the moon mission program – Chandrayan, Rajangam said, “It is an international project with seven countries, aimed at a moon impact probe. The probe will be jettisoned from an aircraft and will pick up the information. A high spectral camera which will image the moon surface will pick up the information not only of the surface but also look for minerals. The mission launch is fixed in the first week of April as announced earlier.”

ISRO is also building two satellites for International customers- EADS Astrium a consortium of a company in Europe and for a customer in UK. Both the satellites, which are at an advanced stage of completion, will be launched in 2008-09.

Source Indiaedunews