12 Global monitoring for environment
and security
| (27016)
14443/05
COM(05) 565
+ ADD1
| Commission Communication: Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES): From Concept to Reality
|
| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 10 November 2005
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 21 November 2005
|
| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 17 November 2005
|
| Previous Committee Report | None, but see footnote 27
|
| To be discussed in Council | 28 November 2005
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
12.1 In 2001, the Commission called for the establishment by 2008
of a European capacity for global monitoring in respect of the
environment and security (GMES), to gather, interpret and use
information in support of sustainable development policies. In
the same year, the Council of Ministers and the European Space
Agency Council endorsed the GMES concept, and, between 2001 and
2003 ("the initial phase"), the Commission and the European
Space Agency collaborated on some initial studies with a view
to the full operation of GMES from 2008.
12.2 This led to a Communication from the Commission
in February 2004,[27]
which, for the period up to 2008 (described as the "development
and implementation phase"), presented an action plan aimed
at making GMES fully operational from that date, and with the
intention of supporting the Community's environmental commitments;
other policy areas (such as agriculture, fisheries, justice and
home affairs, regional development and transport); and the Common
Foreign and Security Policy and the European Security and Defence
Policy.
12.3 The Communication also envisaged the gradual
development of a GMES "core capacity", based on four
components — services for users; observations from space;
observations from land-based sensors and those in the sea, water
or atmosphere; and the capacity to manage and integrate data.
Priorities for development included the environment,[28]
natural and technological hazards,[29]
agriculture and fisheries, and providing support to the Common
Foreign and Security Policy by helping to set up a framework through
which the Member States and the relevant Community bodies can
improve exchanges of data and information needed in the context
of conflict prevention and crisis management.
12.4 In clearing the document, our predecessors recognised
in their Report of 10 March 2004 the potential contribution which
GMES could make to the achievement of Community objectives, particularly
for the environment, but they went on to note (and share) the
Government's concern about the approach set out in the Communication
might amount to an encroachment on defence and foreign policy
matters which are the responsibility of Member States. Moreover,
the pace and direction of the development of GMES after 2006 would,
to some extent, be in competition with other priorities for expenditure.
They therefore asked to be kept informed of the Commission's response
to the Government's concerns about the references in the Communication
to defence and other matters which are the responsibility of Member
States.
The current document
12.5 As its title indicates, the Commission has sought
in this latest Communication to suggest how these objectives can
be achieved in practice, and it has identified three fast track
services —
reinforcing the Community's capacity to respond to emergencies
created by natural and man-made disasters, monitoring of land
use changes, and monitoring the state of the marine environment
—
which it considers could be developed by the end of 2008 through
the introduction of pilot projects. This would be followed by
the progressive introduction of further pilots covering areas
such as atmospheric monitoring, external border surveillance and
crisis prevention.
12.6 The Commission suggests that the arrangements
should in the short term draw on existing capabilities, but that,
in the longer term, investment will be needed in new capacities
to ensure the availability of services, with capacity being built
up gradually in the light of their uptake and sustainability.
It also envisages that GMES will be allocated a "substantial"
proportion of the funding for space available under the Seventh
Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and
Demonstration (FP7), which is currently under preparation, with
the expectation that, whilst funding will also be sought on a
voluntary basis from members of the ESA for the first phase of
the programme, over time an increasing proportion of the expenditure
in this area will be met by the Community. As to the organisational
arrangements, the Commission suggests that the Community should
define the priorities and requirements, aggregate the political
will and user demand, and ensure the availability and continuity
of services, whilst the ESA should support and define the technical
specifications of the space component, implement the latter by
co-ordinating various centres across Europe, and advise the Community
on future space component requirements.
The Government's view
12.7 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 17 November
2005, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Sustainable
Farming and Food) at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Lord Bach) says that, although the UK will keep a close
watch on a suggestion in the Communication that military synergies
should be pursued to ensure a better use of resources, GMES has
the potential to improve the implementation and monitoring of
Community environment and security policy, and will help to mitigate
the impact of global climate change (where it should also constitute
a significant element of the Community's contribution to the Global
Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).[30]
The Government is therefore broadly supportive of the GMES, and
sees this Communication as providing helpful clarification on
its development.
12.8 The Minister adds that the third joint EU/European
Space Agency space Council on 28 November is expected to agreed
a set of orientations on the GMES, which will represent the Council's
conclusions on the Communication. He says that:
- on the overall strategy, these
will reaffirm the importance of GMES as an autonomous European
capability to provide environmental and security information,
note the importance of its contribution to international monitoring,
and support its development in a phased manner with clearly defined
priorities, and with the need for a decision point on funding
in 2008 allowing Member States to decide on future participation;
- on roles and responsibilities, they will note
the Community's leadership role in aggregating and defining European
user requirements and developing a business case and programme
plan for GMES, note also the need to ensure that the ESA's proposals
on development of the space component continue to be demonstrably
coherent with the user requirements defined by the Community,
recognise the Commission's current intention to allocate a major
proportion of the space budget within FP7 to GMES, and invite
the Council and European Parliament to explore possible further
funding from the Community budget to support its operational costs;
and
- on implementation, they will confirm the need
to develop a comprehensive programme plan, welcome the intention
that Member States' experts should evaluate the most appropriate
structure for the governance and implementation of GMES, and recognise
the need to make the best use of existing resources, including
national ones.
12.9 The Minister adds that these conclusions are
broadly in line with UK views, particularly on the need for the
Commission to play its role in aggregating the user demand and
developing a programme plan, in ensuring that the ESA's development
proposal are in step with these Commission plans, and on the existence
of a decision point in 2008 on funding by ESA members. However,
he adds that it will be necessary for the future to ensure that
the exploration of future funding from the Community budget is
in line with the principle of budget discipline and with wider
objectives on the Financial Perspectives. Also, whilst the UK
has been successful so far in ensuring that GMES is defined as
a civil system, it will be necessary to make sure that any developments
on its security theme remain in the civil area.
Conclusion
12.10 Although we find some of the detail in this
Communication somewhat opaque, its main purpose —
which is to identify the first areas in which the general approach
set out in the Communication produced in February 2004 should
be put into practice —
is clear enough, and does not appear to us to give rise to any
new points of principle, bearing in mind that the areas in question
do not touch directly upon the defence and foreign policy matters
which had a source of potential concern on the earlier Communication.
It is also clear that, although a number of detailed points still
need to be finalised, the conclusions which are to be put to the
joint EU/ESA Space Council on 28 November are in line with the
UK's own objectives. We are therefore content to clear the document.
27 (25344) 6094/04; see HC 42-xii (2003-04), para 20
(10 March 2004). Back
28
For example, climate change, air quality, water quality and the
marine environment. Back
29
Such as floods, drought and oil spills. Back
30
This was initiated by the United States through the G8 in 2003,
and supported by Ministers at the recent G8 Summit. Back
|
