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EUMETSAT reaffirms its role in GMES at its 70th Council meeting

The 70th Council meeting of EUMETSAT (the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) took place on 21-22 June 2010 in Rome, Italy.

Among other issues, the Council discussed the role of EUMETSAT in the European Space Policy and in GMES through the adoption of a dedicated resolution. This resolution emphasises the need to recognise that user-governed entities, such as EUMETSAT, play an important role in structuring space activities, particularly when these activities address operational services, like in the case of GMES. EUMETSAT Member States agreed on a definition of the activities that can be carried out by user-governed entities and proposed that, in the case of GMES, EUMETSAT is involved from the federation of user requirements at European level up to and including the operations of the related satellites.

The above mentioned activities would come in support of the European Commission. In the case of GMES the Commission is responsible for the interaction with user communities to specify European space systems in support of European policies. EUMETSAT could be thus the European entity supporting the EU for the GMES activities related to operational oceanography, atmospheric composition monitoring and climate monitoring.

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