The Full Picture

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Getting the full picture:

the European Commission and GEOSS

European Commission

he European Commission is a major contributor to the

Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

The policies of the European Union (EU) in environment,

agriculture, fisheries, transport and energy place Europe at the

forefront of international negotiations concerning global

warming and biodiversity, all within a realistic, sustainable

development approach.

In this context, the European Commission provides support to

Europe-wide coordination actions to encourage a strong European

contribution to the GEOSS. These contributions include many

national initiatives in the 27 EU member states, as well as

programmes led by the European Environment Agency and by inter-

governmental European organizations such as the European Space

Agency (ESA, 17 member states), the European Organization for the

Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat, 19 member

states), the European Centre for Medium Range Forecasting

(ECMWF, 18 member states) and many others.

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)

initiative, the Framework Programme of Community Research, an

ambitious environmental data policy, and a development policy in the

areas of science and technology are the pillars that make

Europe a major world actor in research and monitoring

of the global environment.

Operational services (GMES)

GMES is the European response to the needs of citizens

in Europe to access reliable information on the status

and evolution of their environment and ensure improved

security. GMES aims to deliver operational information

services, based on Earth monitoring data, (collected from

space, air, water and land) that correspond to identified

users’ needs and can support EU policies.

GMES is not limited to the boundaries of the EU, but

is foreseen to support the implementation and moni-

toring of European policies with global reach too.

The operational services are gradually built on exist-

ing operational capacities and experiences gained from

projects funded at national level in Europe and by the

European Commission and the ESA. The service devel-

opment is continually accompanied by user

consultations at national as well as European level in

GMES Emergency Response Core Service

With GMES, European civil protection agencies will have access to a 24/7 service delivering information that facilitates their interventions and

contributes to saving lives during extreme events

Source: PREVIEW, RISK-EOS, RESPOND, TERRAFIRMA Projects

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