In mid-January GMV took part in the 8th Annual Conference on European Space Policy held for two days in Brussels under the title of "Europe as a global space player" and bringing together Europe’s main space stakeholders and institutions.

The conference, organized under the High Patronage of the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was the first meeting of 2016 to address the content of the upcoming Space Strategy, which will set out the roadmap for the EU’s space policy, to be made a reality throughout this year. This strategy will take into account such questions as the thoroughgoing remodeling of international and European markets as a direct consequence of new operators, growing competition and new types of clients calling for new commercial relations.

The eighth Conference on European Space Policy offered stakeholders from the space sector, industry, users and European and national decision-makers the opportunity to debate the burning issues, such as the challenges posed by new generations of satellites, earth observation, Big Data, access to space, the SatCom industry, R&D projects, European security and defense policy, etc.

GMV played a key role in the conference. Its CEO, Jesús Serrano, took part in the session discussing what place to give to space tools and satellite data in the future European Security and Defense Policy.

The 850-strong turnout included the Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Energy Union, Maroš Šefcovic, who argued forcefully that "The space sector needs public and private investment. If we wish to obtain this money we need an alliance with users and the market to convince private investors and public authorities".