On 12 May 2026, the European Union Delegation to the Philippines hosted the Europe Day reception at Ayala Museum in Makati. The occasion marked the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration and brought together the European Union’s partners in the Philippines in celebration of shared values: peace, cooperation, and partnership.
More than 400 guests attended, among them senior government officials, heads of diplomatic missions, agency representatives, and embassy staff. Among the evening’s highlights was a dedicated Copernicus exhibit, bringing one of the most substantive expressions of EU-Philippines cooperation directly into the room.
An EU Global Gateway flagship program
CopPhil is a flagship initiative under the EU Global Gateway strategy in the Philippines. With a budget of €10 million (about PHP 700 million), it ranks among the most significant active cooperation projects between the European Union and the Philippines. Implemented by the European Space Agency (ESA) in partnership with the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), CopPhil delivers co-developed operational Earth Observation (EO) services to Philippine national agencies across land management, agriculture, hazard monitoring, and marine ecosystem protection.
On the policy side, the team is developing a financial framework through which landowners engaged in conservation could earn blue carbon credits, potentially linked to tax incentives or other government mechanisms. By connecting verified monitoring data to carbon finance, the platform aims to make restoration efforts measurable, creditable, and financially rewarding for coastal communities.
Europe Day brought this work in front of the decision-makers and institutional stakeholders whose continued engagement is key to the long-term uptake of CopPhil results. This unique occasion gave the audience a direct look at what Copernicus Sentinel satellite imagery of the Philippines looks like, and what it can be used for.
The evening was a strong showcase for CopPhil and Copernicus in the Philippines, presenting a clear example of EU-Philippines cooperation under the Global Gateway strategy to the stakeholders best placed to turn it into action.
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Read more about Europe Day 2026 in Manila: Europe Day 2026 celebrations in the Philippines highlighted partnership, culture, and people-to-people connections | EEAS
Image Gallery: Earth Observation images from the evening
Below are the six Copernicus Sentinel-2 images displayed during the Europe Day reception at Ayala Museum, presented as three pairs: one location from the European Union, one from the Philippines, each pair showing the same kind of feature captured continents apart.
Find these images ready for download in our Resources page.
Background Information
As a flagship and unique program of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, CopPhil is designed to harness digital resources and space technology for sustainable development and to support innovations in research and business in close cooperation with government partners.
CopPhil is managed by the European Union Delegation to the Philippines. It is implemented by the European Space Agency (ESA) in partnership with the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST). In addition to the development of the Earth Observation Services, the activities of CopPhil include the establishment of a Copernicus Data Center and IT infrastructure as well as awareness-raising and knowledge and skills transfer related to Copernicus data and information.
