Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)107 - Space surveillance and tracking support programme - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2013)107 - Space surveillance and tracking support programme. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2013)107  |
| date | 28-02-2013 |
Space-based systems enable a wide spectrum of applications which play a fundamental role in our everyday life (TV, Internet or geopositioning), are critical to key areas of the economy, and help ensuring our security. Space-based applications and derived services as well as space research have become critical for the implementation of EU policies, such as environment, climate change, martime policies, development, agriculture, security related policies including the CFSP/CSDP, as well as the furthering of technical progress and industrial innovation and competitiveness.
With increasing dependance on space-based services, the ability to protect space infrastructure has become essential to our society. Any shutdown of even a part of space infrastructures could have significant consequences for the well-functioning of economic activities and our citizens' safety, and would impair the provision of emergency services.
However, space infrastructures are increasingly threatened by the risk of collision between spacecraft and more importantly, between spacecraft and space debris. As a matter of fact, space debris has become the most serious threat to the sustainability of certain space activities.
In order to mitigate the risk of collision it is necessary to identify and monitor satellites and space debris, catalogue their positions, and track their movements (trajectory) when a potential risk of collision has been identified, so that satellite operators can be alerted to move their satellites. This activity is known as space surveillance and tracking (SST), and is today mostly based on ground-based sensors such as telescopes and radars.
There are other actions to mitigate the risk from collisions or their consequences. These include research efforts to better protect the satellites against the impacts of collisions and to develop technologies to remove space debris from orbits. Furthermore, there are several initiatives that seek to ensure the commitment of space-faring nations to reducing the production of space debris when conducting space activities through international level. The international Code of Conduct on Outer Space Activities proposed by the Union and currently under negotiation with space-faring nations has received wide international support so far. However, important as these instruments may be if their provisions are implemented, they will not eliminate the problem that existing and future space debris poses, they will just reduce the exponential growth of space debris in the future. The only solution today is to avoid collisions and monitor uncontrolled re-entry of spacecraft or their debris in the Earth's athmosphere.
However, in Europe there are today limited capacities to monitor and survey satellites and space debris as well as re-entry of space objects into the Earth's atmosphere. Furthermore, there are no proper services to issue collision warnings for satellite operators .
The Commission's Communication 'Towards a space strategy for the European Union' (COM(2011)152) recognising both the importance of space infrastructures and derived services as well as the need to ensure their protection, underlines that the Union should define the organisation and governance of a European system for surveillance and tracking of spacecraft taking into account its dual nature and the need to ensure its sustainable exploitation as highlighted in the Industrial Policy Communication adopted in October 2010.
EU action in this domain is justified with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1.12.2009 which expands the EU's competences in space. Article 189 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union empowers the EU to promote joint initiatives, support research and technological development and coordinate the efforts needed for the exploration and exploitation of space in the context of a European Space Policy.
The need for EU action in the domain has been supported by Member States in several Council Resolutions and Conclusions. In 2008, the fifth Space Council meeting confirmed that Europe must 'develop a European capability for the monitoring and surveillance of its space infrastructure and of space debris'. It also confirmed that the Union needs to play an active role in the implementation of the SSA system and its governance mechanisms. Most recently, the May 2011 Council conclusions on the EU space strategy Communication reiterate the need for a European SST capability to enhance the safety of European space assets and their launches. It stipulates that to this end, 'the Union should make the widest possible use of assets, competences and skills that are already existing or being developed in Member States, at European level and as appropriate internationally'. The Resolution called on the EU [European Commission and EEAS], in close cooperation with ESA and Member States, to come forward with proposals for a governance scheme and a data policy which takes care of the high sensitivity of SST data. These views are also shared by the European Parliament in its report on the space strategy for the EU adopted on 30 November 2011.
Progress on two flagship European programmes, Galileo and Copernicus (the new name for GMES, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme) has also raised awareness of the need to protect EU space infrastructure. Galileo is the first EU space flagship project and will remain one of the major building blocks of the EU intervention in space and Copernicus has a major space-based component (the Sentinel satellites). Born as a R&D project, Copernicus has recently entered its initial operational phase.
In line with the above, the current proposal for a Decision concerns the establishment of a European service which will seek to prevent collisions between spacecraft or between spacecraft and debris and monitor uncontrolled re-entry of complete spacecraft or parts thereof. In technical terms this service is referred to as a European SST service.
Following the approach envisaged in the Commission Communication 'Towards a space strategy for the European Union that benefits its citizens' of 2011, this Decision allows for the definition of a partnership, whereby Member States will contribute with their existing and future assets to the SST capability at European level and the Union will provide a legal framework and a financial contribution to the implementation of the actions defined. The legal framework defines the governance scheme and the data policy in accordance with the relevant Council conclusions.
Last, but not least, the proposed European SST services accommodate an essential objective of the space industrial policy of the EU (indentified in the Commission's Communication on Elements for an EU Space Industrial Policy to be released in 2013), namely to achieve European technological non-dependence in critical domains, and to maintain independent access to space.
Contents
The proposal follows an extensive consultation with stakeholders and the public. It is accompanied by an impact assessment.
Over the past years, DG Enterprise and Industry consulted different parties interested and involved in space affairs on various areas of potential future EU activities in space and notably on the development of a European Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) service. The development of such service has also been the subject of political debate among EU Ministers responsible for space.
– There is a consensus among EU and ESA Member States Ministers responsible for space that the development of a European SST service is to be led by the EU and not by the European Space Agency (ESA). This consensus is reflected in the Council Resolutions mentioned above. The underlying reason for this emerged in numerous discussions: The European SST service has a security dimension (it allows gathering intelligence on States' civil and military space infrastructure and operations) which the EU, unlike ESA, has the competence and is equipped to deal with. The TFEU grants the EU the competence to coordinate the exploitation of space systems and has also the competence and the mechanisms in place to deal with the security dimension of such a service; Member States consider that ESA should support the EU in this endeavour (and it is doing so through its SSA preparatory programme) but, as an R&D organisation, does not have the competence and the mechanisms necessary to set up and run a European SST service on its own.
– In particular, Member States ask the EU to define the governance and data policy for a European SST service, to play an active role in the setting up of the service, and to make best use of existing sensors and expertise. Member States are also explicit as to how security concerns should be taken into account: SST sensors need to remain under national control. Confidentiality of SST information has been defined as a key principle for SST data policy. SST information should only be declassified on a case by case basis when the need arises.
– There is a consensus among EU and ESA Member States and experts that a future European SST service should capitalise and build on existing sensor assets which should be linked and operated as a network. There is also convergence regarding the fact that current assets are insufficient to ensure a desirable level of performance. To reach a desirable level new assets (such as tracking and surveillance radars and telescopes) would have to be built and integrated in a European SST system. Member States possessing sensor capacity and those willing to develop it should play a key role in the setting up of the European SST service.
– There is also consensus among Member States and experts in the field that in order to set up and operate a European SST service, it is necessary as a minimum to:
· Link the limited existing assets (mostly ground-based telescopes and radars to capture information of the position of satellites) and increase these capacities by building and linking new assets (sensor function);
· To develop a processing function which merges and analyses SST data captured (processing function);
· Set up a 24/7 front desk that forms the link to the users and issues alerts on collision risks and re-entries to satellite operators and relevant public authorities.
– Throughout years-long discussions, Member States owning assets relevant for SST insisted on one crucial governance aspect: Due to security concerns, the sensor and processing functions of a future European SST system must remain under the control of the national competent authorities (in some cases military authorities). The majority of Member States support the idea that, for the purpose of setting up a European SST service, those Member States owning existing or new assets could form a consortium to run, as a network, both the sensor and processing function. Member States are also of the view that the front desk function should be run either by the consortium itself of by another body with adequate security credentials, such as the European Union Satellite Center. At the same time, for reasons of national security, Member States made clear that they would not collaborate with a commercial actor in this domain.
– There is a consensus that the development of a European SST service should be done in close cooperation with the United States of America.
– Member States are willing to make their assets available for the setting up of the European SST service. They are of the view that, in return, the development of the service should involve EU funding and should, as a minimum, cover operations directly linked to the setting up of the service. In addition to making their assets available, Member States are open to contributing to it financially.
The consultation also showed that the public opinion is aware of and supports the need to protect space infrastructure.
The legal basis for the Commission proposal is Article 189 TFUE.
The proposal adopts the form of a Decision of the European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure. The text has a general scope and its content is to be directly applicable to all Member States, although participation in the establishment and operation of the European SST system is not mandatory.
The proposal defines the objectives of the proposed action, namely, the provision of Space Surveillance and Tracking services, the scope of the services to be provided, the governance aspects, as well as the budgetary resources. The main text is supplemented by an annex on SST data policy principles that forms an integral part of it.
The proposal complies with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The objective of the proposal, namely support the setting up of European SST services by means of the federation of existing national assets exceeds the financial and technical capacities of a Member State acting alone and can only be achieved in a satisfactory manner at Union level. As far as proportionality is concerned, the Union action does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objective of the proposal insofar as the planned budget corresponds to costs estimated following extensive analyses and where the governance model used appears to be the most suitable.
The SST programme remains within the overall EU budget envelope proposed by the Commission for the next MFF. No funding requests beyond the MFF proposal are made. Article 11 of the proposal specifies that funding for the SST support programme shall be drawn from other relevant programmes in full compatibility with their legal base.
The Union will support activities by means of grants (including lump sums). The beneficiaries of such grants will be participating Member States contributing with national assets to the European SST system as well as the EUSC where it cooperates with the participating Member States in the establishment and operation of the SST service function as referred to in Article 3(c) functioning as EU 'Front Desk'. The indicative Union overall contribution to the implementation of the support programme is EUR 70 million over the period from 2014-2020 at current prices. However, this overall contribution depends on the outcome of the ongoing co-decision process on the MFF and the MFF related programmes from which funding should be drawn for the SST support programme. Furthermore, it will depend on decisions to be made under each of the relevant programmes concerning the use of funding for the activities to be co-financed by the SST support programme.
The estimated costs of the programmes are the result of extensive analyses and discussions with experts, in particular from the space agencies or similar bodies from Member States and from ESA.