The European Union and its member states have been working for 10 years on a major public initiative to provide information on the environment and safety : for better husbandry of the planet’s resources, improved understanding and knowledge to help in decision-making, advance warning of any threat to the safety of the population and ways of reacting more effectively.

As a part of its forthcoming Presidency of the European Union, France and the European Commission are jointly organising a Forum to mark the launch of the first GMES services in pre-operational mode.

These services include fields such as territorial management, the marine environment, air quality and emergency situations, whether created by natural disasters or human activity.

 The GMES Forum 2008 is intended to present GMES and its earliest services both to end-users and to the intermediary companies providing services based on this type of information and wishing to use the results of this public investment to develop new markets.