Open Access Satellite Data in GMES programme

The European Parliament's final draft report on the Commission proposal for a regulation on GMES programme and its initial operations 2011–2013 was unanimously approved by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on 11 May 2010. In this approved report, representing the achievement of extensive discussions between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, MEPs included a provision of open access to all satellite data, except security sensitive data. As a next step in the co-decision procedure, the vote by the whole Parliament on the final draft report is scheduled for 16 June 2010.

The Commission proposal of 20 May 2009 for a regulation on GMES programme and its initial operations 2011–2013 (COM(2009)0223) provides a legal basis for the governance of the programme and an additional EU funding of €107 million for the 3-year initial operations phase of GMES, supplemented with €209 million from the space theme of the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) for accompanying research actions. The GMES programme should be fully operational by 2014. The European Space Agency (ESA) will be responsible for technical co-ordination and implementation.

In the Council of Ministers, the draft regulation was negotiated within the Research Working Party, which on 19 April 2010 achieved a large measure of agreement on the text, in order to enable a first reading agreement in the co-decision procedure. A few days later, on 28 April, an informal consultation was organised between representatives of the Presidency of the Council, the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee and the Commission. This led to the production of a compromise text, which was endorsed by the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) on 5 May. At the occasion of the Competitiveness Council meeting that took place on 25 and 26 May 2010 in Brussels, Ministers took note of a presidency progress report on the draft regulation.

In the European Parliament the draft report on the proposed GMES regulation and initial operations 2011–2013 was unanimously approved on 11 May 2010 by the responsible ITRE committee, with MEP rapporteur Norbert Glante (S&D, Germany). The committees on Budgets (BUDG) and Environment (ENVI) gave opinion on this draft report, with MEPs in charge respectively Damien Abad (PPE, France) and Vittorio Prodi (S&D, Italy). The adopted final draft contains the compromise text as agreed by the COREPER of 5 May.

In the adopted text MEPs of the ITRE committee included the provision of open access to data gathered by satellite. According to this provision all information, except for security sensitive data, will be fully and openly accessible through a free-of-charge licensing and online access scheme. The open access should thus maximise benefits for the widest possible range of applications and foster a "downstream market" for which small and medium-sized software companies can develop new applications.

As a next step of the co-decision procedure, the vote by the whole Parliament on the draft report is scheduled for 16 June 2010 with the view to approving the proposed regulation at first reading.