This year’s NEREUS key event was a three day Space exhibition at the Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels. Organized simultaneously with the 4th European Space Conference who annually gathered in Brussels the European space community as well as representatives of national and regional authorities, the opening of the NEREUS-Space exhibition brought together more than 300 participants.
Aimed at making political decision makers aware of the benefits of space technologies for the European citizens in the regions, the exhibition was composed of 24 illustrative poster presentations and a 4 minute video both showcasing regional examples of space applications in different domains (security, civil emergency, agriculture, maritime etc.) in the NEREUS regions. In addition to these, CNES, the French space agency and Thales Alenia Space, gently offered some mock-ups to complement the exhibition.
On the occasion of the opening ceremony, which took place in the Atrium 5 of the CoR in the evening of 8th November 2011, the CoR Secretary General, Mr. Stahl, welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of Space policy to link the European regions. Additionally, he recalled long term collaboration between the CoR and NEREUS who is working for more than two years to spread the use and understanding of space technologies across Europe to bring the benefits of space to the regions and their citizens.
Mr. Bénéteau, NEREUS President, thanked Mr. Stahl and the CoR for the continuous support to NEREUS activities and recalled the importance to boost the development of space applications and services in our regions as an economic and social objective that should involve all European regions and not only the NEREUS members.
Finally, Mr. Bénéteau gave the floor to MEP Prodi and MEP Remek who stressing on the necessity to develop the European space programs, GMES and EGNOS/Galileo for the benefits of citizens thanked the network NEREUS for its work on spreading the understanding and the use of space technologies among its regions.
