The Council agreed on a general approach
concerning the "Copernicus programme", the space programme for
monitoring the Earth from the space, with a view to entering into
negotiations with the European Parliament for its timely
adoption.
Copernicus shall be a civil, user driven programme
under civil control, building on the existing national and European
capacities, as well as ensuring continuity with the activities
achieved under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security
(GMES).
Copernicus shall consist of the following
components:
- a service component ensuring delivery of information
in the following areas: atmosphere monitoring, climate change
monitoring, emergency management, land monitoring, marine
monitoring and security;
- a space component ensuring sustainable spaceborne
observations for the service areas referred to in the
Regulation;
- an in-situ component ensuring coordinated access to
observations through airborne, seaborne and ground-based
installations for the service areas referred to in the
Regulation.
The maximum amount allocated by the Union to implement
the activities shall be EUR 3 786 million at 2011 prices for
the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020.
The amount shall be broken down in the following
categories of expenditure at 2011 prices:
- for the activities under the service component, EUR
791 711 million;
- for the activities under the space component, EUR 2
994.289 million, including a maximum amount of EUR 26.5 million
for the other activities referred to in the Regulation.
The recitals have also been examined in depth at a
technical level. They add that:
- In order to attain its objectives, the Copernicus
programme should rely on an autonomous Union’s capacity for
space borne observations and provide operational services in the
field of environment, civil protection and security, fully
respecting national mandates on official warnings.
- The evolution of the space component should be based
on an analysis of options to meet the evolving users needs,
including procurement from national/public missions and commercial
providers in Europe, specification of new dedicated missions,
international agreements ensuring access to non-European missions,
and the European Earth observation market.