N° 18–1997: Space applications in the Mediteranean region
2 June 1997
Cooperation in Space technologies between Europe and the Mediterranean countries has made a significant step forward following a workshop on "Space applications in the Euro Med region" held in Cairo, Egypt, on 26 and 27 May, under the aegis of the European Space Agency, the European Commission and the Arab Institute of Navigation.
Some 250 officials and industrialists from the 12 Mediterranean countries (*) and from the European Union attended the workshop. Using real examples in the fields of telecommunications, remote sensing and navigation, the workshop highlighted the potential, the costs and the skills needed for the application of space technologies.
European industry and operators took part both in the workshop and the associated exhibitions/demonstrations. It is expected that the concrete definition of a number of possible partnership Mediterranean projects in the field of risk management, Earth Observation networks, telecommunication could stem from this workshop, to be funded as bilateral of multilateral projects, or to become potential candidates for co operation with ESA and the EU.
In particular, for what concerns ESA, the extension to the North African region of the EGNOS programme on global satellite navigation could be envisaged and promoted together with applications in the fields of telecommunications activities concerning tele-medicine, while in the field of Earth Observation, cooperation could be strengthened in activities where ESA has already a widely recognized expertise such as coastal zone management, water resources management and monitoring of water pollution with the use of ESA's ERS satellite data.
(*) Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine
Note : To learn more about ESA, visit the ESA homepage on the World Wide Web at the new address: http://www.esa.int