present interviews with important stakeholders of the future
development of European Earth Observation. You will find interesting
interviews with ESAs Earth Observation Director, Dr. Volker Liebig, and
ESAs representative at the European Commission, Dr. Michel Verbauwhede.
Important issues for ESAs Ministerial in the end of this year are the
long-term budgets for the Earth Observation Envelope Programme and the
GMES Space Component. A secured data provision from relevant Earth
Observation sensors is crucial for service providers as well as for
user organisations.
At the EARSC Annual Meeting on June 30
some 20 members had the pleasure to receive presentations from Steffano
Bruzzi, Head of the ESA Coordination Office and co-leader of the GMES
Programme Office and Dr. Steve Coulson, Head of the ESA Earth
Observation Market Development Programme. All contact persons at member
companies should already have received these presentations via e-mail,
if not you can always contact EARSC Executive Secretary.
We also continue to present a member
profile in each eomag issue. In this issue you will learn more about
one of our Dutch members, NEO, established in 1996. With more than 50
members from 13 European countries, and still growing, such a specific
presentation of our members will take some time. Therefore, I also
welcome you to visit the EARSC web-site, www.earsc.org, where you can
find short presentations of all EARSC members. The member contributions
to eomag, especially concerning news from members, have grown
substantially. You will find about 15 pages with interesting reading
from our members. This is highly appreciated, and I would like to
encourage you to continue to send contributions to EARSC Executive
Secretary.
The period for summer vacations still
vary a lot on the European continent, but I could see a tendency in
northern Europe to more and more “adapt” to southern European periods.
However, in Sweden for example we still regard end of June, July, and
early August as the period of preference for our 4-5 weeks vacation.
Therefore, I would like to welcome some of you back from a relaxing
vacation and at the same whishing the best for those of you that soon
will start your vacation. This autumn will for sure be interesting and
important from an Earth Observation point of view. EARSC will take an
active part in the forthcoming discussions, and will do its best to
represent the views of our members.
Vice-Chairman EARSC