The European Commission unveiled on Thursday a new space policy, aiming to pool resources of member states to maintain competitiveness of its space sector.

The proposal, tabled jointly by the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA), focused in particular on making more effective use of resources by combining efforts, as single member states would not be able to face global challenges.

"With this communication on the European Space Policy we intend to live up to Europe's global leadership aspirations in important industrial and research areas, which will provide growth and jobs for the future," said Gunter Verheugen, EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry policy.

Under the proposal, the European Union, ESA and member states will coordinate their civil space programs to make effective use of their budget and eliminate unnecessary duplication, thus meeting shared European needs.

The new space policy also called for cooperative interaction between defense and civil space programs and technologies.

The EU has launched several ambitious space programs, such as the Galileo project, a network of some 30 satellites to compete with the U.S. Global Positioning System. But the project was set to be delayed as those companies taking part failed to agree on specific terms in their cooperation last month.

The Commission was also in preparation for the project of Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security, the so-called GMES, which optimizes the collection, exchange and use of data resulting from already existing satellites.

European space applications such as Galileo project and GMES will continued to be developed and exploited, the Commission said.

European space manufacturing industry generated a turnover of 4.4 billion euros in 2005, with a workforce of 28,000. Globally, the industry generates a considerable downstream industry about 5 times bigger than in the space segment.

Despite the relative low European investment in space, whose budget is five times smaller than in the United States, European space industry is highly competitive and secures 40 percent of world markets for manufacturing, launching and operating satellites.

"ESA has for more than 30 years successfully developed space systems and infrastructures. We are eager to respond to the new challenges of the European Space Policy," ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said.

EU member states will discuss the new policy on May 22.

Editor: Yan