Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the establishment of an Intergovernmental Agreement for the operations of the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) from 2014 to 2020

The GMES programme's objective is to develop a high-quality European Earth observation capacity. At a time when EU's international partners are investing heavily in such capacities, a coordinated EU response is of strategic importance. As such, GMES services will bring benefits to a wide range of European policies. The programme also represents significant potential for economic growth and job creation, in line with the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

In its Communication entitled "A Budget for Europe 2020", the Commission proposed to fund the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) outside the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF), given the limits of the EU budget to fund this type of large-scale project. However, the Commission is strongly committed to ensuring the success of GMES, and in this context, it adopted in November 2011 a Communication providing the main elements for defining the appropriate governance and long term funding of the GMES programme from 2014 onwards.

In particular, the Commission proposed to set up a specific GMES fund with financial contributions from all 27 EU Member States based on their gross national income (GNI), in a model similar to that of the European Development Fund. This implies the establishment of an intergovernmental agreement between the EU Member States meeting within the Council. The management of the fund should be delegated to the Commission.

On 16 February 2012, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the future of GMES, stating a preference for financing GMES under the MFF. The Communication has also been debated within the Council, in particular the question of funding through an intergovernmental fund, but no conclusions were reached.

While the position of the Commission in relation to the funding of GMES outside the multi-annual financial framework has not changed, it remains committed to support Member States in the establishment of the necessary intergovernmental agreement and to prepare the necessary regulations for the GMES operations in a timely manner, in order to avoid disruptions of the programme.

The establishment of an intergovernmental agreement, accompanied by a regulation implementing that agreement and a financial regulation, will take some time. As they have to be in place on 1 January 2014, the Commission urges the Member States to start the preparation of the intergovernmental agreement without further delay.

In order to facilitate the ongoing discussions, the annex to this Communication includes a more detailed draft of the main elements of an intergovernmental agreement that can serve as a basis for negotiation.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)218: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:218:FIN

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