The European Space Agency's future strategy for Earth Observation marks a big departure with the past. Following the series, ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, which have established no doubt Europe's technical capability, the new programme will focus on smaller but more frequent spacecraft. Individual missions will be much more focused for both scientific purposes and applications. Information from space Earth Observation is an essential element in Europe's strategic armoury to meet the environmental and economic challenges of the next century. For the space community, the challenge will be to show that the small focused approach really can meet the requirements for a much-reduced budget.