European Union Agency for the Space Programme: Linking space to user needs
Space is essential to the way we live, work and play. EUSPA’s core mission is to implement the EU Space Programme and to provide reliable, safe and secure space-related services, maximising their socio-economic benefits for European society and business. By fostering the development of innovative and competitive upstream and downstream sectors and engaging with the entire EU Space community, EUSPA is driving innovation-based growth in the European economy and contributing to the safety of EU citizens and the security of the Union and its Member States, while at the same time reinforcing the EU’s strategic autonomy.
Content
The Regulatory Framework of the EUSPA
EUSPA Mission Statement
The mission of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) is defined by the EU Space Programme Regulation. EUSPA’s mission is to be the user-oriented operational Agency of the EU Space Programme, contributing to sustainable growth, security and safety of the European Union.
Its goal is to:
- Provide long-term, state-of-the-art safe and secure Galileo and EGNOS positioning, navigation and timing services and cost-effective satellite communications services for GOVSATCOM, whilst ensuring service continuity and robustness;
- Communicate, promote, and develop the market for data, information and services offered by Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus and GOVSATCOM;
- Provide space-based tools and services to enhance the safety of the Union and its Member States. In particular, to support PRS usage across the EU;
- Implement and monitor the security of the EU Space Programme and to assist in and be the reference for the use of the secured services, enhancing the security of the Union and its Member States;
- Contribute to fostering a competitive European industry for Galileo, EGNOS, and GOVSATCOM, reinforcing the autonomy, including technological autonomy, of the Union and its Member States;
- Contribute to maximising the socio-economic benefits of the EU Space Programme by fostering the development of a competitive and innovative downstream industry for Galileo, EGNOS, and Copernicus, leveraging also Horizon Europe, other EU funding mechanisms and innovative procurement mechanisms;
- Contribute to fostering the development of a wider European space ecosystem, with a particular focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and start-ups, and reinforcing know-how in Member States and Union regions.
As of July 2023, EUSPA will also take the responsibility for the Programme's Space Surveillance Tracking Front Desk operations service.
Vision
EUSPA is the operational European Union Agency for the Space Programme. It adopts a user-oriented approach to promote sustainable growth and to improve the security and safety of the European Union.
Over the past twenty years, the European Union has been committed to creating an EU Space Programme and infrastructure that is competitive, innovative, and that delivers real benefits to citizens and business alike. Building on these foundations, the European Space Programme has made great leaps forward in recent years, delivering unique services in satellite navigation, Earth observation, and telecommunications, and strengthening both the upstream and downstream sectors.
As a result, space technology, data and services are indispensable to the daily lives of Europeans. They also play an essential role in supporting the strategic interests of the Union. Space-based services are ubiquitous - we all use them when we use our mobile phones. In addition, a growing number of industries and entrepreneurs look to space to develop solutions to the challenges we face in society. Nevertheless, at EUSPA we believe that we have just scratched the surface of the benefits that space can deliver. We see a future that is very close, where business and society will increasingly look to space as the resource of the future.
As the link between space and users, EUSPA’s ambition is to become the reference point for all space-related needs in the EU. EUSPA brings all space stakeholders together, allowing them to leverage the synergies of the Space Programme’s individual components to deliver the greatest possible benefits to European citizens and business. EUSPA plays a leading role in the EU Space Programme implementation. It promotes space-based scientific and technical progress and supports the competitiveness and innovative capacity of space sector industries within the Union, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups.
The EU Space Programme and the services and applications that it supports, help to advance the European Union’s objectives and to achieve its key policy goals and priorities.
Values
Our values serve as a compass for all our actions and guide how we interact with the world.
- We care
We care about each other and the people we work with; we believe in European values and take our corporate social responsibility seriously.
- We are respectful and diverse
We value and respect people, the environment, the EU institutions and their roles; we encourage diversity and provide equal opportunities for all.
- We are professional
We continuously develop and improve our knowledge, processes, skills and competencies to deliver high quality, cost effective services with integrity and high ethical standards.
- We are innovative
We continuously search for ways to stimulate innovation in our work and the work of our partners to improve our performance and excel in our mission.
- We are reliable
Together, as one team, we are trusted partners to our colleagues across the Agency and to our stakeholders.
- We are accountable
We take responsibility for our work and reach decisions based on due diligence.
EUSPA values provide the basis for EUSPA’s ethics, which are also supported by the specific internal guidance to all EUSPA staff on avoiding conflict of interest, complemented by whistle-blowing arrangements to uphold EUSPA’s high governance standards.
History
In 2021, in line with the new EU Space Regulation and the growing role of space in supporting EU priorities in terms of growth, competitiveness, sustainability, and security, the EU decided to expand the scope of the former European GNSS Agency (GSA) to include new responsibilities. This resulted in the creation of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), which was officially launched on 12 May 2021.
EUSPA builds on the proven track record of the GSA. In taking on responsibility for various new Space Programme components, EUSPA leverages the GSA’s technical expertise, market intelligence, security know-how, and the extensive EU space-based community that it has built, to create synergies that will take EU space services and applications to a new level both in Europe and around the world.
The EUSPA story begins with the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) set up in May 2002 by the Council;
Two years later, the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) - the GSA's predecessor - was initially established as a Community Agency on 12 July 2004, by Council Regulation (EC) 1321/2004, status amended in 2006 by Council Regulation (EC) No 1942/2006. The European Council took this important step because it recognised the strategic value of Europe having its own independent satellite positioning and navigation programme, namely EGNOS and Galileo, and the need to ensure that essential public interests in this field are adequately defended and represented.
The GSA officially took over all tasks previously assigned to the GJU on 1 January 2007.
With Regulation (EU) No. 912/2010, which entered into force on 9 November 2010, and subsequently amended by Regulation (EU) No. 512/2014 of 16 April 2014, the GSA was restructured into an agency of the European Union named the European GNSS Agency (GSA).
The Regulatory Framework of the EUSPA
The main legal framework currently applicable to the Agency is available in the Register of documents, which you can find here.