This week marks 20 years since the manifesto was signed that gave rise to Europe's Copernicus environmental programme. With seven Sentinel satellites already in orbit delivering terabytes of data every day, Copernicus is the biggest provider of Earth observation data in the world.

To mark this 20-year milestone, reflect on the programme's achievements and to look to the future, EU commissioners, service providers, ESA directors and many more gathered in the small Italian town of Baveno on the southwest shore of Lake Maggiore, effectively the birthplace of Copernicus.

Signed in 1998, the manifesto proposed that an operational environmental monitoring programme be created.