## 3 Results on EO Policies and Decision-Making Structures  
### The EU Space Programme and Copernicus  
Copernicus is the EO component of the EU Space Programme, established in 2014 by the European Union through EU Regulation 377/2014 and coordinated by the European Commission. This EU's flagship initiative for EO is backed by a substantial budget of nearly 6 billion EUR for the period 2021-2027. The program's primary aim is to enhance the European Union's capacity in EO, enabling it to address global challenges such as emergency response, global food security, climate change mitigation, and national security. Copernicus is divided into three main components: the space segment, in situ data, and various public services. The programme is implemented in partnership with ESA, entrusted with the space component, and benefits from contributions from partner agencies and organisations (see [[https://www.copernicus.eu/en/about-copernicus](https://www.copernicus.eu/en/about-copernicus)]([https://www.copernicus.eu/en/about-copernicus](https://www.copernicus.eu/en/about-copernicus)), accessed on 17 May 2024). The space component of the Copernicus includes the Sentinel family of missions, which are Sentinel-1 (providing all-weather radar imagery), Sentinel-2 (providing high-resolution optical imagery), and Sentinel-3 (providing optical data for marine and land services). Additionally, Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 offer atmospheric composition monitoring from geostationary and polar orbits, respectively. Sentinel-5 Precursor bridges the gap between Envisat and Sentinel-5 (for scianachy data), while Sentinel-6 provides radar altimetry data for oceanography and climate studies (see [[https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/sentiwiki](https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/sentiwiki)]([https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/sentiwiki](https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/sentiwiki)), accessed on 16 May 2024). Copernicus (Figure 1) also comprises six service component, which includes Atmosphere, Marine Environment, Land, Climate Change, Emergency, and Security services. These services are provided free of charge to users, but data collected and processed via the Security component are request driven and might be subject to restricted access, an example of the restrictions identified by [33]. Figure 2 provides an overview of the available resolutions outlining the fact that satellites in VHR are commercially owned. Cortosat-3 is the only public optical satellite in VHR, owned by the government of India [34]. The privately owned satellites shown in Figure 2 provide additional data to Copernicus through an activity entrusted to ESA under Copernicus Contributing Missions, CCM. As some of these services are heavily reliant on high- and very high-resolution missions, the new EU Space Regulation (EU) 2021/696 foresees a cautionary use of such data due to security factors but simultaneously supporting third-party engagement to facilitate the integration of VHR data across the Copernicus Service Components:  
_\"(Article 38) The Commission should work with data providers to agree licensing conditions for third-party data to facilitate their use within Copernicus, in compliance with this Regulation and applicable third-party rights. As some Copernicus data and Copernicus information, including high-resolution images, may have an impact on the security of the Union or Member States, in duty justified cases, measures in order to deal with risks and threats to the security of the Union or Member States may be adopted.\"_ from EU Space Regulation (EU) 2021/696 Figure 1: Overview of the three Copernicus components: space, in situ and services. Contribution missions are not part of the space component. They can be included directly in the provision of Copernicus services. Figure 2: Overview of the resolutions available for Copernicus Space segment and contributing missions. VHR resolutions, needed for the monitoring of very small lakes and MPAs are only available through contributing missions. All satellites in blue, green and orange are privately owned.