Role of Galileo satellite technology in maritime security, safety and environmental protection

Introduction This chapter discusses how the European Space Agency (ESA) and European space policy (ESP) have sought to make a case for the benefits and synergies that can be gained from working with what is traditionally considered an unrelated area – EU maritime policy and the marine environment. Since the establishment of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in 2002 (Commission 2002), ESA and the ESP have provided support to enable EMSA to carry out its work. This chapter identifies how institutional actors have sought to promote satellite technology and the crucial role it can play in improving the security, safety and environmental protection of the EU’s maritime regions. The development of policies may be in response to the bias or opinions of the policy actor, individually or collectively, resulting in policy areas being transferred from the national to the supranational level (Dudley and Richardson 1999: 226). This might depend, for example: on whether that policy is one-dimensional or multi-dimensional and whether it is the result of individual or collective action to push forward that change (Baumgartner and Mahoney 2008: 435-439); on the role of the institutions and actors working towards institutional change and how such change meets the preference of the actors driving it forward (Kohler-Koch 2000: 515); and on how, despite the European Commission being viewed as a coherent and strategic actor, it is a complex organisation that has complex relationships with external actors in areas such as industry and defence (Mörth 2000: 173-189). This chapter is set in the context of the hypothesis of Hörber (2012: 78) that Europe has developed beyond the guiding ideals of European integration for the purpose of peace and prosperity after the Second World War and has now entered a phase of consolidation and exploration. This idea was supported by Manners (2002: 240), who identified an evolution from post-war nationalism towards a Europe of pooled resources and common principles. Similarly, Vogler and Stephan (2007: 390) noted that the EU pursues collective action and advances its own regional integration to establish an identity for itself as an actor on the global stage.