November 30, 2017

10th anniversary of NEREUS network - CNES working with European regions

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of NEREUS (Network of European REgions Using Space technologies), regions signed a statement on ‘A network serving regions – Priorities for 2018-2020’, on Monday 29 November in Brussels in the presence of Mark Weinmeister, Secretary of State, European Affairs, for the Land of Hesse, Michele Emiliano, President of NEREUS and of the Region of Apulia, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Director-General of ESA, Roberto Battiston, President of the Italian space agency ASI, and CNES Chief Operating Officer Lionel Suchet, alongside numerous other personalities from the European Parliament, the European Committee of the Regions and NEREUS member regions, including NEREUS Vice-President Bernard Plano for the Occitanie regional council.

NEREUS aims to encourage uptake of space technologies at regional level through advocacy to shape European policies and by giving citizens and end-users a greater role in space policy and markets, and by leveraging partnerships and highlighting convincing application projects. NEREUS has notably helped to define priorities for Copernicus to meet end-user needs, contributed to the Copernicus User Uptake project for Horizon 2020 and organized conferences, for example for the Toulouse Space Show.

The statement signed yesterday confirms regions’ interest in continuing to work together to support development of space applications and covers policy priorities for 2018-2020. It underlines that there is still some way to go to make space data really useful to citizens, businesses and governments. It restates NEREUS’s mission and in particular its role matching technologies to users and identifying new requirements for future satellite systems.

After the signing ceremony, Lionel Suchet commented: “In signing this statement, CNES intends to affirm its position with respect to Europe’s regions. It is the logical next step after the statement of intent by precursor regions for space applications signed at the Paris Air Show in June with the Presidents of the French Guiana regional authority (CTG) and of the regional councils of Brittany, Ile-de-France, Nouvelle Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. It is vital for European space policy that we pursue these efforts and CNES shall be working hard to do just that.”

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CONTACTS
Fabienne Lissak    Head of Media    Tel: +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37    fabienne.lissak@cnes.fr
Pascale Bresson    Press Officer    Tel: +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Raphaël Sart    Press Officer    Tel: +33 (0)1 44 76 74 51    raphael.sart@cnes.fr

cp187-2017_-_nereus_va.pdf (pdf - 83.17 KB)
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