MEPs set their sights on heavenly rewards

Date: 20/03/1997

By Rory Watson

AS THE EU steps up its efforts to ensure European manufacturers will be able to benefit from the rapidly expanding multi-billion-ecu market for space technology, MEPs are planning to inject added impetus into the debate.

The European Parliament will bring together potential users and suppliers of the highly advanced equipment after Easter to consider how to ensure that the Union is not outdistanced by the United States in exploiting this new frontier.

The meeting on 27 May is being organised by Belgian Socialist MEP Claude Desama as he prepares a report for the Parliament on the possible strategies to be followed.

“I am looking at the issue from an economic point of view. We need to know how space can help create jobs and also how to ensure the international competitiveness of European industry. We must also consider cross-frontier cooperation. If Europe does not do something, then the field could be left to the US,” warned Desama this week.

The European Commission has calculated that the stakes involved are huge as an increasing number of terrestrial needs are catered for by space technology. It estimates that the world satellite telecommunications market will be worth between 220 and 300 billion ecu over the next decade.

In addition, the value of equipment to satisfy the increasing demand for satellite navigation and positioning technology will, it is estimated, mushroom from 480 million ecu in 1994 to 25 billion ecu by 2005.

EU policy-makers believe that the Union should be positioning itself to play a key role in the development of a single satellite navigation system for the planet to replace the two current ageing American and Russian models.

Observing the earth from outer space is another market - now worth 30 billion ecu - widely considered to have huge potential as technology is adapted to sectors as diverse as telecommunications, building and public works, fishing and agriculture.

Desama is also expected to use the May meeting to gauge the degree of support for the idea that the Commission should initially launch studies and pilot projects on future earth observation missions, which would then be developed commercially by private investors.

The Research, Industry and Transport Commissioners Edith Cresson, Martin Bangemann and Neil Kinnock are all putting pressure on the Union to concentrate on the growing potential of space technology, confident that the EU's competitive position can be strengthened if there is closer cooperation between the European Space Agency, member states, the industry, national agencies and standardisation bodies.

Desama also wants the Union to explore the potential non-commercial uses of space technology. “We need to examine how the satellites can be employed in the public interest, especially in the cultural and educational fields,” he explained.