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The European Union Satellite Centre (EU SatCen; previously EUSC) is the
agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...
of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
(EU) that supports the EU's decision-making in the field of the
Common Foreign and Security Policy The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union (EU) for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, whi ...
(CFSP), including crisis management missions and operations, by providing products and services resulting from the exploitation of relevant space assets and collateral data, including satellite and aerial imagery, and related services. SatCen is headquartered in the
Torrejón Air Base Torrejón Air Base (Base Aérea de Torrejón de Ardoz) is both a major Spanish Air and Space Force base and the co-located Madrid–Torrejón Airport, a secondary civilian airport for the city and metropolitan area of Madrid, east-northeast of t ...
, located in the Spanish municipality of the same name, in the vicinity of
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. The staff of the centre, headed by Director Sorin Dumitru Ducaru, consists of experienced image analysts, geospatial specialists and supporting personnel, recruited from EU Member States. In addition, experts seconded from Member States work at the SatCen for periods ranging from six months to three years, and temporary staff are recruited as needed. SatCen assures technical development activities in direct support to its operational activities, as well as specialised training for image analysts. The SatCen was initially founded in 1992 as the Western European Union Satellite Centre. It was incorporated as an EU agency on 1 January 2002. In June 2014, a new Council Decision replaced the former Council Joint Action of 2001 to modify SatCen's mission, aligning it with the evolution of the user demand and the developments of the EU's space activities relevant to CFSP (ref. 1), making it an essential interface with the European Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT, ref. 2) community.


Production and users

In 2015, SatCen provided 1348 products for the benefit of a large community of users, such as the
European External Action Service The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP), who is al ...
in general, but especially the EU Military Staff, the EU Intelligence Analysis Centre and the Civil Planning and Conduct Capability, as well as EU
member states A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign s ...
and international organisations.


See also

*
Common Security and Defence Policy The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the European Union's (EU) course of action in the fields of defence and crisis management, and a main component of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The CSDP involves the dep ...
*
European External Action Service The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP), who is al ...
*
Military of the European Union The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the European Union's (EU) course of action in the fields of defence and crisis management, and a main component of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The CSDP involves the deplo ...
* European Union Institute for Security Studies *
European Defence Agency The European Defence Agency (EDA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) that promotes and facilitates integration between member states within the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The EDA is headed by the High Representative ...
*
Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU; french: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO; german: Westeuropäische Union, WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 ...
* Joint European Union Intelligence School


References

;Citations ;Bibliography *


External links


June 2014 Council Decision

About GEOINT

EU Satellite Centre Annual Report 2015

EU SatCen website

CSDP structure, instruments, and agencies
EEAS website Satellite Centre 2002 establishments in Spain 2002 in the European Union Government agencies established in 2002 International organisations based in the Community of Madrid Torrejón de Ardoz {{EU-stub