38. Stresses that satellite communication plays an important role within the European space industry, as orders from this sector provide continuous uses for spacecraft and launchers and thus contribute to the objective of independent access to space for the EU; draws attention, in this context, to the role of independent payload capacity which becomes available when launching commercial satellites (for ‘hosted payloads’) which can be used to try out new products and technologies in space and thus helps to reduce both the costs and the time required to be able to offer new services;

38. Stresses that satellite communication plays an important role within the European space industry, as orders from this sector provide continuous uses for spacecraft and launchers and thus contribute to the objective of independent access to space for the EU; draws attention, in this context, to the role of independent payload capacity which becomes available when launching commercial satellites (for ‘hosted payloads’) which can be used to try out new products and technologies in space and thus helps to reduce both the costs and the time required to be able to offer new services;

38. Stresses that satellite communication plays an important role within the European space industry, as orders from this sector provide continuous uses for spacecraft and launchers and thus contribute to the objective of independent access to space for the EU; draws attention, in this context, to the role of independent payload capacity which becomes available when launching commercial satellites (for ‘hosted payloads’) which can be used to try out new products and technologies in space and thus helps to reduce both the costs and the time required to be able to offer new services;

− (FR) Minister, Commissioner, rapporteur, ladies and gentlemen, for experts in the aerospace sector, the name Galileo may conjure up not only an Italian astronomer, but a US space probe designed by NASA to study Jupiter and its dunes, due to be launched on 18 October 1989 from the Atlantis space shuttle.

Under Interreg IIIB a pilot project on MSP in Puck Bay was recently finalised including a study on spatial development on adjacent land.

12. Considers that if the technologically neutral approach based on competition between operators set out in the eEurope 2005 action plan is adopted, satellite technologies may constitute an appropriate solution for rural and outlying regions as part of an initiative covering the enlarged European Union; endorses the proposal to examine this issue at the forum on the digital divide which the Commission plans to hold in early 2004, and to encourage the launch of pilot projects to consider the various technological options, including space-based ones; considers that precise details should be given on how the Commission intends to allocat ...[+++]e resources for the Structural Funds for this purpose;