20.10.2010 Official Journal of the European Union L 276/1 (Legislative acts) REGULATIONS REGULATION (EU) No 911/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 September 2010 on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011 to 2013) (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 189 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3), Whereas: (1) At its meeting of 15 and 16 June 2001 in Gothenburg, the European Council agreed on a strategy for sustainable development, in order to mutually reinforce economic, social and environmental policies and added an environmental dimension to the Lisbon process. (2)  In its Resolution of 21 May 2007 on the European Space Policy (}) adopted at the fourth joint and concomitant meeting of the Council of the European Union and of the Council of the European Space Agency at ministerial level established in accordance with Article 8(1) of the Framework  Agreement  between the  European Community and the European Space Agency (*) (the () Opinion of 20 January 2010 (not yet published in the Official Journal). (?) Position of the European Parliament of 16 June 2010 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 13 September 2010. () OJ C 136, 20.6.2007, p. 1. ( OJ L 261, 6.8.2004, p. 64. () O () © ‘Space Council’), the Council recognised the actual and potential contributions from space activities towards the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment by providing enabling technologies and services for the emerging European knowledge society and contributing to European cohesion, and underlined that space represents a significant element of Europe’s  Sustainable Development Strategy. The Resolution ‘Taking forward the European Space Policy’ (°) of 26 September 2008 adopted at the fifth joint and concomitant meeting of the Space Council stressed the need to develop adequate EU instruments and funding schemes, taking into account the specificities of the space sector, the need to strengthen its overall and its industry’s competitiveness and the necessity of a balanced industrial structure; and to allow appropriate long-term Union investment for space-related research and for the operation of sustainable space-based appli- cations for the benefit of the Union and its citizens, in particular by examining all space-related policy conse- quences within the framework of the next financial perspective. The European Parliament resolution of 20 November 2008 on the European space policy: how to bring space down to earth (®) stressed the need to find adequate EU instruments and funding schemes for the European Space Policy to supplement the allocations from the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological devel- opment and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) (the Seventh Framework Programme), so as to allow the different economic actors to plan their actions in the medium and long term and emphasised that the next financial framework should take into account adequate EU instruments and funding schemes to allow long-term Union investment for space-related research and for the operation of sustainable space-based applications for the benefit of the Union and its citizens. C 268, 23.10.2008, p. 1. C 16 E, 22.1.2010, p. 57.