The number of flying or ready to fly European space environment instruments has increased significantly over the past years. Research programmes have also made good progress in investigating innovative technologies and new concepts designs which will allow a substantial reduction of mass, power and data rate budgets compared to traditional instrumentation, whilst providing equivalent or higher detection efficiency. With many future European missions in Navigation, Telecommunications, Exploration, Science, and Earth Observation domains flying in severe space environments and carrying highly sensitive components and systems, the need for such instrumentation is increasing. Accurate measurements of the radiation, plasma and micrometeorite and debris environments in space plays also a crucial role in improving the currently available environment models, and the development of the space weather services required by the Space Situational Awareness programme.