Meeting with space industry

30 September 2005

 

Following one of the recommendations
contained in the Communication on?Æ European Space Policy: Preliminary
Elements?Æ of 23 May 2005 and in compliance with orientations of the
second Space Council, the Unit in charge of Space Policy within
Directorate General Enterprise and Industry has organised a
consultation of a panel of industrialists. The panel of industry
representatives was including participants from all types of companies:
large system integrators, SMEs, operators, service companies, added
value services providers, …)

 

The discussion was based on the elements
listed in the Communication for which five position papers had been
prepared. These papers were covering the following topics:

 

*
Regulation;

*
Standardisation;

*
Procurement policy;

*
Measures to improve International Markets;

* Industrial return used in the ESA context.

 

On the regulatory issues, the participants
agreed that better European regulations in fields like spectrum
allocations or delivering of licences for space-based telecommunication
systems might be necessary.

 

Concerning the standardisation,
recognising that many activities were already undertaken by industry,
the Commission has prepared a draft mandate which will be placed with
standardisation authorities like CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. The
participants agreed that the Commission might take measures to
streamline the standardisation process which is still felt too long and
resource consuming, and therefore not accessible to all companies,
particularly SMEs.

 

On the procurement policy and use of
industrial return in the ESA context, while recognising that the
current process has enabled the development of a competitive European
space industry, the Commission indicated that it would initiate an
impact study.

 

More info at:

 

(Credits Europa)