The European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Union Satellite Centre (SATCEN) today formalized their close and fruitful cooperation, already in place since 2004, with an exchange of letters between Jorge Domecq (EDA Chief Executive) and Pascal Legai (SATCEN Director) at the EDA premises in Brussels.
Both organisations perform complementary roles and activities in the space-based earth observation domain and more generally in the space and security sector. Whereas the EDA’s work is focused on the harmonisation of requirements and the promotion of appropriate schemes for future capability development, SATCEN’s activity supports the decision making and actions of the EU by providing products and services resulting from the exploitation of space assets in particular in the CSDP field.
Since 2004, EDA and SATCEN have collaborated on projects as important as GISMO (Geospatial Information to Support Decision Making in Operations) and GISMO 2, SULTAN (Persistent Surveillance Long Term Analysis) and REACT.
With today’s exchange of letters, the EDA and SATCEN establish a more structured cooperation meaning that they will even more focus on activities of mutual interest, such as studies, workshops, projects and programmes. The new enhanced relationship will also see the nomination of Points of Contact on both sides to facilitate communication and cooperation.
Jorge Domecq, the EDA Chief Executive, hailed the exchange of letters as an important step and said he was “confident that, through our cooperation, EDA and SATCEN can bring a significant added value to their respective Member States by reducing administrative burden, facilitating common action where possible, supporting better planning, as well as contributing to the best use of our respective resources”.
Specific cooperation areas and joint roadmap
EDA and SATCEN have also identified specific cooperation areas such as imagery exploitation, geospatial analysis and applications, future space-based earth observation systems, cyber defence, Big Data exploitation in the space and security domain, space situational awareness or maritime surveillance. The two Agencies will also develop a joint roadmap for cooperation detailing the activities of common interest as included in the respective work programmes (3-year Planning Framework for EDA and annual Working Programme for SATCEN). The roadmap will be updated annually.
Background
The European Union Satellite Centre, which is based in Torrejón de Ardoz (Spain), was established by the Joint Action 2001/555/CFS on the establishment of a European Union Satellite Centre repealed by Council Decision 2014/401/CFSP of 26 June 2014. The Centre supports the decision making and actions of the Union in the field of the CFSP and in particular the CSDP, including European Union crisis management missions and operations, by providing products and services resulting from the exploitation of relevant space assets and collateral data, including satellite and aerial imagery, and related services.
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