European_space_policy_mediumThis policy paper written by Dr Alexandros K. Kolovos aims to raise the awareness in organizations and individuals who operate in the security and defense domain of Greece on the importance of space applications and operations in crisis management along the relevant guidelines given from the European Space Policy adopted by the Council. Since the needs of space systems for planning and conducting civilian and military crisis management operations overlap, this paper briefly proposed a series of policy recommendations in the field of space in order to harmonize the domestic level to the international trends focusing on synergies between civilian and military systems and users.

Main criteria for the following policy proposals are the guidelines given by the  EU approach to crisis management which focuses on the user and emphasises the synergy between civilian and military actors. To facilitate such synergies there is a need for  the necessary awareness of these users starting at the level of the academies, the need for the development of a specialized national space policy for the security and defence domain, the need for the establishment of appropriate structures / mechanisms to permit this institutional permanent structured dialogue, which can lead to the sharing of the products offered by “dual use”, satellite systems for the benefit of operations and missions performed by the actors in the security and defense domain of Greece.