EU sets out €19 million South Asia satellite-data programme

The European Union has announced a €19 million programme to help India and six other South Asian countries use satellite observations and climate services in disaster preparedness and infrastructure planning. Its October 7, 2026 release documents the launch in New Delhi of the four-year initiative, jointly implemented by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the European Space Agency.

The participating countries are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. According to the EU release, the programme will work with national institutions responsible for environment, forestry, infrastructure, climate change, disasters and water. It aims to help them develop national roadmaps for applying Earth-observation data to disaster resilience and climate adaptation.

The programme combines two priorities: regional cooperation and training, and better access to spatial information derived from Copernicus, the European Earth-observation programme. The EU describes policy dialogue and exchanges among specialists as part of the regional work. These are implementation plans, rather than evidence that new national warning services are already operating.

Funding will support two complementary components, the release states. One contribution passes through the coalition’s Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund; a selected participating organisation will implement that component with the coalition’s technical support. The space agency’s component covers generating, delivering and using Earth-observation and climate services.

ETGovernment also reported the launch on October 7. Neither its report nor the EU release specifies an India-only budget, names the Indian institutions that will take part or gives dates for individual services to begin. The announced programme runs for 48 months; its national roadmaps and service delivery remain work to be implemented.