Council says no to outside funding for Earth monitoring programme

The Council of Ministers has rejected the European Commission’s proposal to fund the Earth monitoring programme GMES outside the EU budget. “Implementing GMES on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement would be regarded as a sign of disengagement of the EU towards major strategic sectors,” the Council said in a statement. In November, the Commission said GMES needed €5.8 billion for 2014-20, and suggested collating financial contributions from all 27 EU member states into a dedicated fund outside the EU budget.