Ministers were accused of kicking the can down the road earlier this month after both the UK and EU failed to resolve the issue of British association to the programme by November 30. Whitehall is prepared to pay the hefty 640 million €750 million subscription bill, but the government has been blocked over issues related to Northern Ireland, according to sources. As senior officials within the European Space Agency ESA mull over further delays, the hope of progress seems to be stuck in limbo.
On Thursday, BBC Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos warned that the UK will tread on thin ice as long as either side of the negotiating table is willing to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol. The EU and the UK can immediately suspend any part of the agreement if it is found to cause economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade. Northern Ireland has not implemented a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, due to the delicate nature of the Good Friday Agreement. The UK has been barred from a number of research programmes, including Horizon Europe because of the tensions surrounding the movement of goods between the EU and the UK. READ MORE: Bison is set to return to Britain after thousands of years.
Mr Amos said that the UK's participation in the Copernicus EU Earth observation programme is still alive - if only on life support. If Brussels and London don't agree to the terms of association, the UK will fall out of Copernicus. The Copernicus Earth observation program is managed by the European Commission in partnership with the EU's 27 member states and has input from the ESA. The programme has a network of Sentinel satellites that gather a wide range of accurate, high-quality data in real-time.
The UK is keen to retain its association with Copernicus because of the fact that it does not have its own Earth observation capabilities. This was agreed upon during the Brexit agreement but has since been derailed by the threat of Article 16. The Commission included, to be clear, EVERYONE wants the UK to stay in Copernicus. The programme needs the UK's €750 million to progress. It would be a monumental lose-lose if this all fell apart.