Irish start-ups must remain in European hands, says EU space chief

Euspa director explains how new technology will impact on us

The EU's Galileo global navigation satellite system is operated by Euspa

Adrian Weckler

A new emergency alert system for European phones, wider ‘geofencing’ standards for drones breaching airports, and making sure that Irish start-ups can grow as much as possible before being acquired out of Europe – these are some of the things on the mind of Rodrigo da Costa, executive director of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (Euspa).

Visiting Dublin this week for the Transport Research Arena conference – the first time that the massive industry event has been held in Ireland – Mr da Costa said he believes the near-future will see every European smartphone able to receive critical emergency alerts from European-controlled satellites about such things as natural disasters or security emergencies.