The map behind the treasure: what the State of the Union means for Europe’s geospatial data

Carol Agius, Head of Representation, EuroGeographics highlights an unseen driver behind European autonomy 

In her State of the Union address on 16 September, Ursula von der Leyen described a Europe determined to hold its future in its own hands. Independence ran through the speech, from energy and defence to artificial intelligence. 

While geospatial data was not mentioned, it was the invisible thread underpinning much of what the President announced.  

Consider the climate resilience framework, which will identify the 100 most vulnerable territories in Europe. Consider the European heatwave plan, the new water initiative and the work on wildfire preparedness. Consider the proposed European security strategy, the emergency response instrument for engineered migration pressure, and the first-ever Housing Act. Each one requires knowing precisely where things are, whether buildings, parcels, addresses, boundaries or infrastructure, and knowing it consistently and seamlessly across borders.

Data as a European treasure

Speaking about AI, the President said Europe’s industries sit on the highest quality data, calling these “precious European treasure”. She named five sectors where industrial AI holds the most promise: health, transport, agrifood, advanced manufacturing, and defence and space. Initiatives for each will follow in November. Accurate location information is indispensable for almost all of them. 

Authoritative geospatial data from Europe’s national mapping and cadastral agencies are an intrinsic part of that data wealth. They are produced by public bodies legally mandated to create, maintain and administer them within Europe. When harmonised across borders, the national data become interoperable: a single, trustworthy pan-European dataset that is sovereign by nature.

A funding question, too

The President was clear that the next long-term budget needs new own resources, and that many priorities will compete for them. Enabling infrastructure is easily overlooked because it sits beneath the headline initiatives. Authoritative geospatial data, however provide the foundation for those Europe-wide initiatives, and they should be funded accordingly. This is the crux of our case for including programme-level funding for geospatial data and infrastructure in the post-2027 MFF budget. 

Interestingly, the President’s showcase example of European innovation was ICEYE, a satellite imagery company founded by two Europeans who met through Erasmus. Imagery is powerful, but it becomes meaningful when anchored to authoritative reference data. We need to make sure that this success story, rightly celebrated by the Commission, is connecting to the data that makes it usable.

That gap is also an opening. With the recently launched DG-DEFIS study to design a comprehensive policy framework for core geospatial data across the EU and the MFF budget negotiations under way, there is an opportunity to make the connection explicit.

If Europe’s data are a treasure, authoritative geospatial data from national mapping agencies is the map to it. Every priority in the State of the Union depends on knowing where things are.

Read the strategic case for a European Geospatial Data Infrastructure