Regional Workshop Announcement

Space powering the Green Deal and the Digital Economy

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb

5-6 March 2020

The Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU has organised its priorities along 4 pillars: a Europe that develops, Europe that connects, Europe that protects and Europe that is influential. Space in general, and EO in particular, can contribute significantly to all four priority objectives, through a range of activities, such as ESA programmes recently endorsed by ESA ministers, or the future EU Space programme and notably its Copernicus component.

Satellite technologies, in particular Earth Observation, have become indispensable in measuring progress towards the goals set by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Green Deal proposed by the European Commission. Europe’s leadership in Earth observation make an enormous wealth of data available for operational monitoring of the environment and security in Europe.

Together with paradigm shifts induced by Information Technology, such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, or by miniaturised satellites, this opens new opportunities for the digital economy and it enables new entrants from all member states, in particular SMEs,  to propose innovative services towards a more sustainable economy without excessive entrance fees. Europe must seize this opportunity to foster innovation and jobs in new service sectors.

Furthermore, EO data and services represents a formidable tool to support multilateralism and open cooperation, in support of the rule of law, environmental security and good neighbourhood relations and stability with special attention to regional perspectives, such as South-East Mediterranean cooperation and the Western Balkans.

The workshop will be the opportunity to confront needs and solutions and it will gather policy makers, scientists, service operators and EO application specialists.

The workshop is being jointly organised by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education, the Faculty of Electrical Engineer and Computing of the Zagreb University and the European Space Agency under the auspices of the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Participation will be free of charge. The working language will be English.