President of the European Council, Charles Michel, visits EUSPA Prague Headquarters
Topics discussed between EUSPA Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa and the President of the European Council included the new mandate of the agency and its role in the delivery of EU priorities such as the EU Green Deal and the digitization and growth of the European economy.
During his stay in Prague, President Michel met with EUSPA Executive Director, Rodrigo da Costa, to discuss the Agency’s new role one year after the entry into force of the EU Space Regulation, together with Matthias Petschke, Director of Space at the European Commission and Bruno Vermeire, Chairperson of the EU Space Security Accreditation Board. EUSPA has now extended responsibilities when it comes to the management, service provision, evolution, and protection of the EU’s flagship navigation systems, Galileo and EGNOS, and the development of the GOVSATCOM Hub, while being in charge of the promotion of services and data from the EU Space Programme – now extended also to the further utilization of Copernicus and GOVSATCOM user aspects. As a gatekeeper of space security, the agency’s Security Accreditation Board has the mandate to accredit all components of the EU Space Programme.
“I am thrilled to see the scope of EUSPA ‘s missions because the EUS Space action is crucial. Indeed, strategic autonomy is essential for the EU, so is the innovation capacity coming from space inspired which is helping for our European priorities. A few years ago, we set the objective of a climate-neutral EU by 2050, which is the driving force of the Green Deal. And I believe that innovation and technology fostered by the EU Space Programme technology are essential to reach our European objectives including mitigating climate change,” declared President Charles MICHEL.
In line with the EU Green Deal, EUSPA supports the creation of solutions that mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and our environmental footprint on a wide range of areas, such as transport and agriculture. Synergies between Earth observation and navigation are central to the preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation of natural disasters. In the unfortunate event of wildfires, floods, or earthquakes access to a precise location and up-to-date geospatial information is vital to deliver an effective disaster management response. EUSPA recently launched a Horizon Europe call to develop space-based safety and crisis management applications.
Fiammetta Diani, Head of EUSPA Market Development, acquainting President Charles Michel, with the features of Fundamental Elements funded GEAR project which leverages Galileo’s accurate signals.
‘’Aside from our commitment to fostering the creation of solutions that make our planet greener, we also focus on innovation and technological progress with the help of our safe and secure Space Programme literally across all markets’’ said EUSPA Executive director Rodrigo da Costa’’. We offer the means to industry and academia, start-ups and SMEs to digitize their operations by relying on space services and data that are secure and accurate’’ da Costa concluded.
The security of safety-critical applications such as landing and navigating a plane,drones delivering medical equipment or ships transporting inflammable cargo trustworthy navigation data is crucial. Among others, EUSPA is currently testing the Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication. A major differentiator for Europe’s positioning system, this service aims to meet a clear user need for a more robust and trustworthy GNSS solution that will bring benefit to a broad range of applications.
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