REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Ex-post Evaluation on the European earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its Initial Operations (2011 to 2013)
Date: 2016-08-02
Institutions: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, data collection, environmental monitoring, international cooperation, observation, public safety, satellite communications, space research, space technology

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 2.8.2016  COM(2016) 492 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Ex-post Evaluation on the European earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its Initial Operations (2011 to 2013) {SWD(2016) 262 final}  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

This  report highlights  the  key  findings  of  the  ex-post  evaluation  of  the European  Earth 
monitoring  programme  GMES  and  its  Initial  Operations  (GIO),  2011-2013.  This  final 
evaluation  was  carried  out  on  behalf  of  the  Commission  to  respond  to  its  obligation 
imposed  in  Article 14.2  of  the  GIO  Regulation1,  that  "the  Commission  shall  submit  to  the 
European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  European  Economic  and  Social  Committee  and  the 
Committee  of  the  Regions  an  interim  evaluation  report  by  31  December  2012  and  an  ex-post 
evaluation report by 31 December 2015." 

This  report  is  accompanied  by  a  staff  working  document  providing  more  details.  The 
Final Report of the contractor, on which the evaluation is based, is available at the OP (n. 
ET 0116321ENN) 

2.  BACKGROUND 

The European Earth monitoring programme GMES GIO (renamed Copernicus in 2014) 
is a flagship programme of the European Union space activities in line with article 189 of 
the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union enabling the EU to conduct space 
related activities. GMES GIO was also one of the programmes to be delivered under the 
Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and it was included in 
the industrial policy initiative, given its benefits to a wide range of Union policies.  

In  order  to  respond  to  ever  growing  challenges  at  global  level  Europe  needs  a  well-
coordinated  and  reliable  Earth  observation  system  of  its  own.  GMES  GIO  was  that 
system.  

GMES  GIO  was  a  long-term  programme  built  on  partnerships  between  the  Union,  the 
Member  States,  the  European  Space  Agency  (ESA)  and  other  relevant  European 
stakeholders.  It  was  also  a  programme  where  the  EU  could  play  a  more  effective  role 
than 
through  bilateral 
collaborations with other space faring nations or participation to global efforts in the field 
of Earth Observation (e.g. the Group on Earth Observations). 

individual  Member  States 

international  cooperation 

in 

GMES  GIO  was  delivering  a  better  understanding  of  how  and  in  what  way  our  planet 
may  be  changing,  and  how  this  might  influence  our  daily  lives.  It  ensured  an 
uninterrupted  provision  of  accurate and  reliable  data  and information  on  environmental 
issues, climate change and security matters to decision makers in the EU and its Member 
States. This information is needed by public authorities in the Member States and regions 
who  are  in  charge  of  the  policy  conception  and  implementation.  The  Commission  also 
needs  this  information  for  evidence  based  policy  making  and  monitoring.  GMES  GIO 
was  also  contributing  to  economic  stability  and  growth  by  boosting  commercial 
applications in many different sectors through full and open access to Earth observation 
data and information services.  

Since  1998  and  until  2013,  funding  has  been  allocated  to  GMES  by  the  EU  and  the 
European Space Agency (ESA) mainly for development activities, in the framework  of 

1   REGULATION (EU) No 911/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 
of 22 September 2010 on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its initial operations 
(2011 to 2013) 

2 

 
 
                                                 
research  projects.  The  GIO  Regulation  presented  a  key  step  in  the  programme  in 
allocating  first  operational  funding  for  the  transition  to  initial  operations  in  the  period 
2011-2013.  

The aforementioned GIO Regulation (Article 2) explains that the programme is building 
on  activities  funded  through  the  7th  Research  Framework  Programme  (FP7)  and  the 
GMES Space Component programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). These three 
elements are complementary and depend mutually on each other. The regulation further 
sets  out  the  scope  of  the  overall  GMES  GIO  programme,  which  "shall  comprise  the 
following: 

(a) 

a service component ensuring access to information in support of the following areas: 

–  atmosphere monitoring, 

–  climate change monitoring in support of adaptation and mitigation policies, 

–  emergency management, 

–  land monitoring, 

–  marine environment monitoring, 

–  security; 

(b) 

(c) 

a  space  component  ensuring  sustainable  spaceborne  observations  for  the  service  areas 
referred to in point (a); 

an  in-situ  component  ensuring  observations  through  airborne,  seaborne  and  ground-
based installations for the service areas referred to in point (a)." 

A  total  budget  of  EUR  107  million  was  initially  allocated  to  activities  under  this 
regulation (see Article 8). Compared to the budgets made available for the GMES Space 
component  under  FP7  (EUR  715  million)    and  ESA's  GMES  Space  Component 
programme  (EUR  1.6  billion),  it  is  clear  that  the  activities  funded  through  GIO  could 
only address a limited sub-set of the overall scope of the GMES programme as defined in 
Article  2.  Nevertheless,  the  establishment  of  an  even  small  operational  budget  line  for 
GIO  was  an  important  signal  in  the  preparation  of  what  later  became  the  Copernicus 
programme. 

This  fact  has  been  acknowledged  in  the  regulation  in  Article 3,  in  stating  that  the 
operational activities "may comprise operational actions in the following fields: 

1. 

the service areas referred to in Article 2(2)(a); 

2.  measures to support take-up of services by users; 

3.  data access; 

4.  support for in-situ data collection; 

5.  the GMES space component." 

The exact scope of the activities carried out under the GIO programme were then defined 
in  three  Annual  Work  Programmes  and  approved  by  Member  States  in  the  GMES 
Committee.  

3.  MAIN FINDINGS OF THE EVALUATIONS 

This document is based on the final evaluation of the Global Monitoring for Environment 
and Security (GMES) Initial Operations (GIO) programme (2011-2013), part of a wider 
evaluation,  covering  three  related  elements,  namely  the  GMES  Preparatory  Actions,  as 

3 

 
well  as  the  FP7-funded  parts  of  the  GMES  Space  Component  as  detailed  in  the 
accompanying Staff Working Document. The evaluation had two overarching objectives, 
which  were:  (i)  to  evaluate  the  relevance,  effectiveness,  coherence,  efficiency, 
sustainability and European added value of the GMES GIO and (ii) to outline the overall 
societal  value,  in  terms  of  the  balance  between  the  investments  made  in  space 
infrastructures and services, and the value of data gathered for the selected services.  

The  evaluation  was  carried  out  by  an  external  contractor  who  adopted  a  mixed 
methodology including desk research, stakeholder interview and a targeted consultation. 
The  data  collection  included  a  desk-based  review  of  existing  documents  (e.g.  EU 
regulations,  interim  evaluations,  GIO  work  programmes,  administrative  data,  usage 
statistics),  an  online  questionnaire  directed  to  all  categories  of  stakeholders,  a  small 
industry  survey  directed  specifically  to  the  contractors  that  ‘built’  the  GMES  space 
component  and  a  programme  of  targeted,  semi-structured  interviews  with  relevant 
individuals  among  key  stakeholder  groups.  More  than  400  named  individuals  were 
approached for an interview or a questionnaire and 170 were consulted during the course 
of  the  study.  The  online  consultation  was  however  advertised  widely  through  DG 
GROW, ESA, EEA and the JRC, and was open to the public. The stakeholder analysis 
emphasised  four  core  groups:  Policy  lead  and  other  key  parties  involved  in  the 
governance of the initiative; GMES service operators; GMES service users, in the public 
and private sectors; Industrialists that helped build the infrastructure. The interview and 
the  consultation  produced  rather  small  number  of  responses,  reflecting  the  particular 
nature of GMES and the small population of people and organisations with knowledge of 
the  activities.  The  data  analysed  were  limited  to  selected  services,  given  that  for  all 
Copernicus  services  data  had  to  be  bought  from  existing  National  space  missions  until 
the  first  dedicated  satellite  (Sentinel  1)  has  been  launched  in  April  2014,  when  the 
Copernicus programme replaced GIO. 

Five  years  after  the  publication  of  the  GMES  GIO  regulation  (2010),  the  GMES 
programme,  as  well  as  each  of  its  six  services  remains  important  to  serving  the 
information needs of Europe’s policy makers and public services. In addition, new policy 
priorities,  such  as  climate  change  or  migration  arise  and  may  call  for  new  earth 
observation capacities or earth observation-based services.  

The  GIO  programme  was  broadly  effective  in  contributing  to  its  stated  objectives, 
detailed  in  the  annex  of  the  Regulation  No  911/2010.  It  had  a  positive  impact  on  the 
build-up of the present Copernicus Programme, establishing two out of the six services, 
coordinating  access  to  other  space  and  in  situ  data,  and  contributing  to  developing, 
building,  launching  and  operating  the  "Sentinels"  satellites.  However,  the  limited 
available  funds  did  not  allow  the  implementation  of  the  other  four  services  and  the 
programme  fell  short  on  the  objectives  of  user  uptake  and  the  development  of  the 
downstream sector. The majority of consulted stakeholders view this whole domain as a 
work-in-progress, so while most people are reasonably satisfied with the achievements of 
the GMES GIO  initiative, there are numerous points where more needed to be done. 

There have been many concrete operational successes as regards the GIO programme’s 
contributions to EU policy, with the growing use of the Land Monitoring (LMS) and the 
Emergency  Management  (EMS)  services  by  policy  makers  and  public  agencies  in  the 
agriculture, environment and climate change areas.  The EMS services have been used to 
support  the  information  requirements  of  various  government  agencies  around  for 
example  flooding,  earthquakes,  fires  and  other  environmental  hazards.  The  GIO 
programme has significantly broadened its user base and achieved an increased uptake in 

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use  of  its  Land  and  Emergency  services.  The  space  component  provided  data  for  the 
Initial  Operation  of  services  from  GMES  Contributing  Missions,  bought  from 
commercial missions or contributed freely from public missions. As regards the Sentinel 
satellites,  the  programme  fulfilled  its  objectives  and  underpinned  the  launch  of  the 
successor Copernicus programme, so also in that sense the GIO programme is considered 
as successful. 

The required outputs were delivered by the programme at reasonable and proportionate 
costs..  The  GMES  Space  Component  produced  substantial  direct  benefits  for  Europe’s 
space industry, with more than 230 suppliers benefitting from €530M in ESA contracts, 
including  48  SMEs.    By  using  generic  industrial  statistics  to  estimate  the  spill  over 
effects  for  the  investments,  while  keeping  the  estimates  in  the  lower  bound,  the  total 
societal  benefits  produced  by  the  GMES  infrastructure  reach  up  to  €3  billion.  Wider 
socio-economic benefits are difficult to calculate at this stage, for instance the extent to 
which the GMES initial operations have enabled savings to be made through improved 
early warnings or better emergency response. However, given the scale of the economic 
disruption,  even  a  1%  contribution  across  all  types  of  emergencies,  would  produce 
annual  savings  of  tens  of  millions,  which  is  substantially  more  than  the  annual  cost  of 
running the whole Emergency Service (4-5 million/year). 

The  efficiency  with  which  the  GIO  programme  was  created  and  service  continuity 
assured  is  counterbalanced  by  the  less  positive  support  to  take-up,  access  to  data  from 
contributing missions, support for downstream applications and coordination of data.This 
reflects  on  one  side  a  priority  choice  for  relevant  financial  commitments  to  the  space 
component over the development of the services . The programme was however properly 
managed but under-resourced to devote more input and resources to solving data related 
obstacles  or  to  launching  extended  services  for  particular  user  groups  or  innovative 
procurement strategies. 

GMES  also  provides  substantial  added  value  through  the  provision  of  harmonised  data 
and  technology  applied  across  EU  Member  States  for  cross-border  issues  and  in 
aggregating  the  harmonised  data  reported  by  Member  States  up  to  EU  scale  in  a 
harmonised  manner.  There  is  real  added  value  for  a  wide  set  of  European  policies  in 
accessing  a  homogeneous  database  and  derived  products  for  the  whole  of  the  EU  and 
beyond. 

The  programme  had  positive  effects  on  intra-EU  and  international  cooperation  and 
enabled the creation of a permanent European earth monitoring system, in line with the 
Commission’s Communication on Europe 2020, which saw GMES as a key component 
of European space policy and a means by which to help address key global challenges. 
The  initiative  provides  high  levels  of  European  Added  Value.  No  single  EU  country 
could have created a similar system on its own and national programmes naturally fulfil 
only a limited number of functions at lower levels of functionality. GMES offered higher 
levels of assured continuity of service, as compared with anything available worldwide: a 
full-scale, permanent coverage of earth observation sensors.  

GIO  demonstrated  its  usefulness  through  its  support  to  Member  States  during  various 
extreme flood events (e.g. in Poland) or forest fires, for data on crop yield forecasting, for 
the monitoring of bio-diversity, urban development, water basins, rivers, lakes, ice-caps 
and much more.  

Turning to the question of the sustainability of the changes brought about by the GMES 
GIO programme, the evaluation suggests there will be a legacy in terms of better policy 

5 

 
choices or enhanced technological capabilities. However, the various services are akin to 
any utility, which is to say they are valuable while they are running; turn them off and the 
decision making and operational processes they supported will quickly need to revert to 
alternative  inputs,  or  be  degraded.  Continuity  of  service  provision  is  thus  seen  as  a 
necessity.  For  the  manufacturers  and  technical  services  companies  that  have  built  the 
infrastructure  and  delivered  much  of  the  services  component,  the  contracts  will  have 
quite a lasting effect, conferring a competitive advantage that people anticipate may last 
for  five  years  or  more.    The  opportunities  for  value-added  resellers  and  downstream 
businesses have yet to be crystallised in any serious scale. 

4.  MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS AND FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS 

The  Regulation  establishing  the  Copernicus  programme  (2013)  is  being  implemented, 
and  there  is  both  a  commitment  to  fund  the  Copernicus  services  and  to  complete 
investments  in  the  Copernicus  space  infrastructure.  The  main  concern  of  the  GIO 
stakeholders, namely the sustainability of the GIO programme has been addressed by the 
creation  of  the  Copernicus  programme.  The  evaluators  nevertheless  underline  several 
aspects where continued or further attention may still be worthwhile. 

  "Strengthen the user orientation of the core services, with explicit strategies that are 
driven by the information and functional needs of key market segments, and which are 
a little less in thrall to the technological ambitions of the space sector."  
In  2015  the  Commission  has  launched  a  broad  process  for  the  capture  of  user 
their 
requirements  both, 
implementation,  the  Copernicus  services  are  to  carry  out  user  satisfaction  surveys 
which will in particular help to adapt to user needs at the working level. 

requirements.  A  part  of 

for  current  and 

future 

  "Continue to invest in user uptake, within both institutional and private sector client 
groups,  and  in  particular  strengthen  the  development  of  substantial  impact  case 
studies, which will showcase benefits."  
A  framework  contract  and  a  first  specific  contract  to  increase  user  uptake  has  been 
signed  and  will  allow  a  more  systematic  and  sustainable  approach  to  these  aspects. 
Complementing  service-specific  measures  have  already  been  started  by 
the 
Copernicus services. 

  "Increase  interaction  with  Member  States  and  regional  authorities  within  the 
governance  structures  (and  consultative  processes)  of  the  core  services,  in  order  to 
achieve improved coordination, promote greater synergy and support de-duplication 
of  efforts  among  the territorial  levels  and  increased integration  of  space  and in-situ 
derived  data,  leveraging  the  INSPIRE  process.    Increased  international  cooperation 
and standardisation would be valuable too."  
Besides  the  formal  interaction  with  the  Member  States  as  part  of  the  programme 
committee,  specific  groups  have  been  created  which  involve  the  Member  States,  as 
well  as  the  implementing  entities  ESA,  EUMETSAT,  EEA,  FRONTEX,  EMSA, 
ECMWF,  Mercator  and  soon  the  EUSC  with  the  aim  to  harmonise  and  exploit  all 
available assets to the maximum extent. International cooperation is an integral part of 
the Copernicus programme. 

  "Continue to support innovation in both the core services and their platforms, looking 
to  make greater use  of data  linking (and big  data  more generally).  The switch to a 
more  operational  funding  vehicle  is  strongly  positive,  however,  there  is  still  an 
argument to continue to support more exploratory work and thinking about the third 

6 

 
generation programme, both services and infrastructure.  As such it would be helpful 
to  retain  some  kind  of  research  budget  for  this  riskier  blue  skies  activity,  perhaps 
through Horizon 2020 and its successor."  
Significantly  improved  data  linking  and  big  data  capabilities  are  expected  from  the 
Integrated Ground Segment. Further, activities of "applied innovation" are contracted 
by the Copernicus services to address specific, focussed short-term innovation needs. 
In parallel, the Copernicus programme gives guidance documents to the EU research 
programme  managers,  to  drive  the  respective  Horizon  2020  topics  on  space 
technology evolution, or Copernicus service evolution. 

  "Increase  substantially  the  support  available  to  develop  downstream  applications, 
including  universal  and  easy  access  to  Copernicus  satellites  and  in-situ  data  and 
focusing  in  particular  on  incentives  for  smaller  businesses,  and  ensure  there  is 
capacity / incentives for the public institutions at the heart of the core services to give 
access to those services / data, to enable research and development work, prototyping 
and demonstrators" 
The  development  of  the  downstream  sector  is  a  central  element  of  the  programme's 
uptake activities. For a number of reasons it is legally difficult and in most cases not 
even  effective  to  directly  fund  specific  local  or  national  earth  observations 
applications.  Some  funding  accessible  to  those,  specifically  SMEs,  exist  in  different 
programmes  of  Horizon  2020.  Specific  measures  in  Horizon  2020  aim  at  the  public 
sector  users.  A  survey  of  EU  legal  texts  in  the  various  policy  domains  has  been 
conducted  and  is  currently  being  analysed  to  identify  barriers  or  obstacles  for  the 
uptake of Copernicus by public users.  

  Beyond those recommendations, the access to Member States reference data and the 
related  use  conditions  remains  an  obstacle  for  a  better  uptake.  Efforts  to  create  EU 
wide open geospatial reference data should be continued. 

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