• The EU was upset with the U.S. over the war with Yugoslavia.
• The U.S. withheld vital military reconnaissance information from the EU in that war in order to stay in control of the military operation.
• This angered the EU and these new developments are partly a result of them wanting their own space capability.

This week, the European Space Agency (ESA) released a report from the So called "three wise men" who had been asked to think about the future of ESA and ESA strategy in the light of the expansion of the European Union.

ESA and the European Council published a joint strategy paper on the role of space for Europe.

The main conclusions are:

• ESA should be expanded to act as the sole agency for all European space endeavours.
• The European Council should become the body to define the European Space Policy and the guidelines for its implementation.
• The European Commission should define the regulatory framework under which space activities are conducted and be a member of the ESA Council.
• "The European Parliament should be given the opportunity to regularly discuss and review the European Space Policy." Note: the EP is not meant to control ESA and European space policy.

The "wise men report" and other recent EU and ESA papers explicitly point to the fact that dual-use is inherent to all space technology. Moreover, it is suggested explicitly that use should be made of this, and:

"We thus see it as logical to use the capabilities of ESA also for the development of the more security-oriented aspects of the European Space Policy".

So far, the ESA statute limits its activities to peaceful purposes. In this context, the report says:

"As the efforts of the European Union in these fields are geared to the so-called Petersburg tasks of peace strengthening in the form of conflict prevention and crisis management, including civil and environmental emergencies, we do not see any problem with the Convention of ESA."

The war in Kosovo was considered a "civil emergency" and Europe has since decided that it no longer wants to depend on US systems for observation, navigation, etc. for military use.

The quote also combines environmental emergencies and "wider" security. Perhaps Europe is already be making plans for when continued environmental degradation and resource conflicts become more important... The report goes on:

"Embarking on development of a European defence system including also a space component will also provide a significant part of European public investment that is missing today compared with the US."

"Increasingly, we see the space infrastructure necessary for commercial and other public sector applications moving together with those necessary for different security needs".

These are related to earth observation (the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security - GMES - program), telecommunication and navagiation (the European GPS system - GALILEO). With respect to GALILEO, the report says:

"It should be recalled that GPS is a US military funded and controlled system, incorporating in particular the capability of selective shutdowns over certain areas in times of conflict. Galileo should have a similar capability, which in turn would imply suitable mechanisms for taking such decisions."

The "wise men" clearly position Europe as THE counterpart and "equal partner" of the US in terms of the strategic goals of "dominance in space" and "information superiority".

"By developing its own infrastructure, Europe will ... PREVENT OTHER COMPETITORS (from Asia in particular) FROM DEVELOPING THEIR OWN INFRASTRUCTRE. By doing that Europe will become the alternative to the US for the world, will consolidate its number 2 position in space and will therefore be able to become a privileged partner on global issiues and large-scale international developments."
(Emphasis added)

It is also clear that, like NASA, science and manned missions are needed to get public acceptance of the space programs: