EU: Majority wishes for a space monitoring system for disasters

Over three-quarters of Europeans (77%) think a space monitoring system to manage disasters and crisis as well as mitigate the effects of climate change should be developed by the EU. 14% say by the EU alone for all Member States, but a majority of 63% think it should be by the EU together with the Member States. Almost one in eight Europeans (12%) thinks it should be developed by each EU country who wishes so. Just over one in twenty Europeans (6%) believes neither the EU nor the Member States should develop it at all.

These are some of the results obtained from an opinion poll on space activities carried out by TNS Political & Social network in the 27 Member States of the European Union between 9th and 12th July 2012. Some 25.536 respondents from different social and demographic groups were interviewed by telephone in their mother tongue on behalf of DG Enterprise and Industry.

The objective of this survey is to gain insight into Europeans’ awareness, expectations and wishes regarding space based services and their opinion on the role of the EU in development of space activities and space exploration.

Furthermore, the poll shows that Europeans are increasingly aware of the EU's activities in space. For Galileo, the European GPS system, public awareness is 57% in average, while in 2007 it was 40%. For the Global monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme the awareness is 38%, as opposed to 22% in 2009.