On 16 February, the European Parliament voted on the future of GMES in a resolution that strongly supports the programme being funded within the Multiyear Financial Framework and for it to be operational from 2014. The motion, which was presented in Strasbourg, France, by MEP Norbert Glante on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, was adopted in plenary. In the resolution, the European Parliament urges the European Commissions (EC) to find a suitable solution to have the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme fully operational from 2014. It highlights that funding the programme outside the Multiyear Financial Framework (MFF) is not considered viable and is, instead, detrimental to the full programme.
In particular, the Parliament reiterates that GMES is one of the European Union’s two flagship space initiatives. It considers that the solution proposed by the EC in its ‘A budget for Europe 2020’ to finance GMES outside from the MFF will be hugely detrimental to the future development of the programme, cause the programme to lose its European dimension, contradict the principles of transparency and full, open and equal access for all, and be seen as a sign of disengagement by the EU from the initiative. The Parliament calls on the EC to speedily table a legislative proposal for the long-term governance, funding and operation of the GMES, financed under the MFF, with the aim of securing the proper deployment and operation of the programme and achieving its objective of being fully operational as from 2014. The resolution will be brought to the Council, the EC and to Member State governments and parliaments for their consideration.
