EXPERT OPINION
SatCen Braces Up For the Road Ahead The need for a renewed security architecture in Europe has prompted increased reliance on actionable geospatial intelligence, which SatCen remains committed to provide. By Amb. Sorin Ducaru, SatCen Director
T
hirty years ago, European nations decided to establish an autonomous geospatial intelligence analysis capability. The Spanish Government offered to host this Centre in Torrejòn de Ardoz, in the region of Madrid, and SatCen thus became the first European agency in Spain.
For the first ten years of its existence, the Centre functioned as a Western European Union entity, becoming a part of the European Union in 2002. Today, it is the EU's prime provider of geospatial intelligence analysis, as an intergovernmental agency of all the EU Member States. The EU High Representative Josep Borrell (HR/VP) refers to the Centre as the “eyes of Europe”, because “through this Satellite Centre, in Europe, from Brussels, in all capitals, we see what is happening”.
Heightened Security SatCen's core mission is, in simple words, to provide “security from space” through trustworthy, reliable, timely geospatial intelligence analysis. It also supports “security for space, or in space” through its function as the front desk of the European SST Consortium. In general, the Centre provides autonomous analysis services for decision-makers in the EU. It supports situational awareness, especially in crisis regions around the world, but also for long-term WMD non-proliferation efforts, humanitarian or crises management missions, disaster relief, refugee contingencies, border security, or the monitoring of irregular migration, to mention just a few key areas of its activity. The Centre supports EU civilian and military missions across the globe, from the Horn of Africa to
10 | www.geospatialworld.net | November - December 2022
the Sahel, and from the Mediterranean Sea to Georgia. Based on the mandate from the Council of the EU, it also supports international partners such as the UN, the OSCE, and the OPCW. SatCen maximizes synergies with Commission services and agencies, with EDA and ESA, on activities related to security, defence and space. It is entrusted with the support for external action within Copernicus, the EU's own global, space-based earth observation program. It was already the original intention at the set-up to provide complex and actionable geospatial intelligence analysis, by exploiting satellite imagery and other relevant data. Today, SatCen covers the full spectrum of European interests, from political planning and operational decision making, to supporting