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EARSC position paper: The EO Services Industry Views on the EU Space Programme Proposal

The European EO Services industry welcomes the proposal for an EU Space Programme and looks forward to making a strong contribution to its’ success. Copernicus remains an extremely important programme for Europe and for our sector. It has demonstrated how to deliver critical information to European policy makers whilst enabling the services industry to develop business in new markets so delivering more highly-skilled jobs in Europe.

The industry already plays a key role in the delivery of the Copernicus Services, but we consider that a great deal more is possible; the proposed programme lays out a number of key measures which can help. Industry has invested strongly in the development of new products and services, many based on the Free and Open data from Copernicus and is ready to invest further. We believe that a partnership between industry and government will enable the best returns for all parties. In this paper we set out our views on a number of the factors which can help deliver these increased benefits for Europe and its policy makers.

EARSC Position Paper

European Association of Remote Sensing Companies – EARSC:
EARSC represents the Earth Observation geo-information services sector in Europe with today 101 members (92 full members and 9 observers), coming from 23 countries covering the full EO services value chain including commercial operators of EO satellites, resellers of data, value-adding companies, geospatial information suppliers, consultancies and system/software providers. The sector plays a key role in providing value-added, geo-spatial information to its customers in Europe and the world. In 2016, the sector revenue in Europe was over €1.2b giving work to 7700 highly skilled employees; The sector is dominated by SME’s with over 95% of the companies having less than 50 and over 60% less than 10 persons employed.
This paper has been prepared and issued by the EARSC board of directors on behalf of the members of EARSC which are commercial companies, coming from Member States of the EU or ESA, providing services (including consultancy) or supplying equipment in the field of remote sensing or using EO data.