Decision 2014/541 - Decision 541/2014/EU establishing a Framework for Space Surveillance and Tracking Support - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 158/227

In its Communication of 4 April 2011 entitled ‘Towards a space strategy for the European Union that benefits its citizens’, the Commission underlined that the shared competence in the field of space conferred upon the Union by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) goes hand in hand with a reinforced partnership with the Member States. The Commission also emphasised that all new action must be based on existing resources and on the joint identification of where new resources are needed.

In its Resolution of 26 September 2008 entitled ‘Taking forward the European Space Policy’ (3), the Council recalled that space assets have become indispensable for our economy and that their security must be ensured. It underlined the ‘need for Europe […] to develop a European capability for the monitoring and surveillance of its space infrastructure and space debris, initially based on existing national and European assets, taking benefit of relationships which may be established with other partner nations and their capabilities’.

In its Resolution of 25 November 2010 entitled ‘Global challenges: taking full benefit of European space systems’, the Council recognised the need for a future space situational awareness (SSA) capability as an activity at European level to develop and exploit existing national and European civil and military assets, and invited the Commission and the Council to propose a governance scheme and data policy that will allow Member States to contribute with their relevant national capabilities in accordance with applicable security requirements and regulations. It further invited ‘all European institutional actors to explore appropriate measures’ which would build on defined civil and military user requirements, make use of relevant assets in accordance with applicable security requirements, and exploit the developments from the SSA preparatory programme of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Council conclusions of 31 May 2011 on the Communication of the Commission ‘Towards a space strategy for the European Union that benefits its citizens’ and the Council Resolution of 6 December 2011 entitled ‘Orientations concerning added value and benefits of space for the security of European citizens’ (4) reiterated the need for an effective SSA capability as an activity at European level, and called on the Union to 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’. Recognising the dual use nature of such a system and taking account its particular security dimension, the Council called upon the Commission and European External Action Service (EEAS), in close cooperation with ESA and Member States, which own such assets and have capacities, and in consultation with all actors involved, to come forward with proposals to fully exploit and build on those assets and capacities in order to develop a SSA capability as an activity at European level, and in that context, to define an appropriate governance and data...