Paris, 15 June, 2005 – Frank Asbeck, Director of the EU Satellite Centre in Torrejón, has appealed to member states to increase the centre’s budget to enable it to develop its capabilities to serve the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
 
Addressing the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr Asbeck said that the Centre had lived on a zero-growth budget in real terms for many years The budget, which now stood at an annual 10 million euros, was inadequate, especially in view of the quality and quantity of the Centre’s work, and compared to that of other institutions in the same line of business. The Centre had a staff of 70, including 20 imagery analysts, and enough tasks to keep it in business for more than a year.
 
The Centre, which was initiated by the WEU Assembly, had capacities that were “of strategic importance for the development of ESDP capabilities”, said Mr Asbeck. When deploying CFSP assets, the necessary, shareable and geospatial support must be available. The European Union could not afford to ignore the growing role of geospatial intelligence. “It is admittedly small, but is nevertheless an indispensable element if the EU wants to achieve its strategic objectives for ‘a secure Europe in a better world’”, he asserted. The Centre, as the EU’s imagery intelligence centre, “can play an essential role within this development”.
 
During a detailed presentation of the Centre’s activities, Mr Asbeck said work had been underway for a long time on developing standards for imagery interpretation and handling imagery data products. “Standardisation is essential for interoperability, both between member states and with others such as the United States” he noted, adding that the EU “should build on the Centre’s experience when pursuing its own work on the establishment of a network-enabled or structured capability”.