30.12.2006   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/37

1.1

The European Economic and Social Committee reiterates the great importance it attaches to the success of the Galileo satellite radio-navigation programme. The EESC has emphasised in several opinions (1) on the matter that Galileo is the European Union's flagship scientific and technical project, particularly in terms of the strategic challenge that the civilian-managed European satellite radio-navigation system represents, not just for the global system of satellite navigation and positioning, but also for services to business, citizens, society and for a more globally competitive European industry.

1.2

The Committee believes it is essential that the strategic value of the Galileo programme should be universally recognised, given that it is the biggest public-private partnership project ever undertaken thus far on a European scale, and the first public infrastructure with a constellation of thirty satellites over three different orbits. It is the property of the European institutions and can offer a new global public service with a market that is increasing exponentially (2), and with accurate space and time positioning over the entire planet.

1.3

The Committee cannot conceal its concern regarding the delay in completing the development and in-orbit validation phase for the satellites and ground components of the system, which was meant to have been concluded under the responsibility of the Galileo Joint Undertaking during 2006 and which will now last until the beginning of 2009. The successive phases involving positioning the satellite constellation, full installation of the ground components and the operating phase — particularly commercial — cannot therefore be completed before the end of 2010.

1.4

The Committee fully agrees with the need to avoid the waste of resources and expertise that would derive from extending the work of the Galileo Joint Undertaking, which was tasked with covering the entire development and in-orbit validation phase, following the establishment of the European GNSS Supervisory Authority, which already started operations in mid-2006, in accordance with the Council Regulation of 12 July 2004 (3).

1.5

The Committee believes, however that it is essential, as it emphasised in a recent opinion: ‘… for the hand-over period between the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) and the Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA) to be effected smoothly’, and to ensure:

1.6

While the Committee endorses the guiding principles of the proposal to amend the statutes of the GJU (5), on which referral to the EESC is mandatory under Article 171 of the Treaty, it would highlight the following points and make the recommendations outlined below.

1.6.1

While the Committee endorses the amendments to the above Regulation, it feels it is insufficient to propose modifications to the annexed statutes alone. It believes it should also provide for:

1.6.2

Regarding the Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA), the EESC believes it is essential to amend the original GSA regulation ‘in order to introduce the tasks transferred from the GJU to the GSA, such as steering the development and in-orbit validation phase, managing the activities emerging from the European R&D framework programmes, and monitoring and managing technical developments in the operational system’.

1.6.2.1

The GSA was established under Council Regulation No 1321/2004/EC of 12 July 2004 and has been operational since mid-2006. It was set up to provide for management of public interests relating to the European EGNOS and Galileo satellite radio-navigation programmes, and to act as contracting authority for future satellite radio-navigation services concession contracts. However, the regulation does not provide for the GSA to manage the development phase or any research work or activity during such or successive phases, nor does it provide the human and financial resources required to cope with such tasks.

1.6.2.2

The Committee has not been consulted on the Council's draft Regulation COM(2006) 261 final of 2 June 2006, amending Regulation No 1321/2004/EC on the establishment of structures for the management of the European satellite radio-navigation programmes. Consequently, a discussion of its content is beyond the scope of the present opinion.

1.7

The Committee believes, however, that it is essential to amend Regulation No 1321/2004/EC in order to ensure the continuity of the Galileo programme and the appropriate transfer of activities from the Galileo Joint Undertaking to the Supervisory Authority, and to provide the best guarantee of completion for the development phase of the Programme once the Joint Undertaking has been wound up. Similarly, the legal, technical and financial arrangements and questions must be clarified, after 31 December 2006, in order to facilitate the completion of the various phases and to ensure the system can be fully operational.

1.8

The Committee would stress the need for ‘the Commission, the Galileo Joint Undertaking, the European GNSS Supervisory Authority and the European Space Agency to make every effort to ensure that the Galileo system is fully operational by the end of 2010’, as called for in the Conclusions of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council of 12 October 2006. The Council also welcomed the Commission's legislative proposals aiming to transfer the remaining activities of the Galileo Joint Undertaking to the Authority during 2006.

1.9

The Committee requests that it be kept updated on Galileo Programme developments and on the crucial role of the ESA in designing and developing European GNSS programmes. Furthermore, the EESC would like to be consulted on the Green Paper on Galileo applications which the Commission intends to publish before the end of 2006 (6).

2.1

The EESC has followed the creation and development of the Galileo European satellite radio-navigation and positioning programme from its very beginnings, recognising the strategic, fundamental role it plays in the competitiveness of the European system, both in terms of its innovative, occupational and social implications, and improved quality of life for citizens.

2.2

The Galileo programme provides for four successive phases:

2.3

The Committee is extremely concerned at the delays accumulated in the development and in-orbit validation phase and, consequently, in the subsequent commercial exploitation phases. This is a setback that compromises the general timetable that was established for the project, and holds up the delivery of an exceptional instrument that combines the expertise and results of European research, and that can provide for successful participation in the global market for satellite radio-navigation related products and services. In 2005 this market was worth EUR 60 billion, with an annual growth rate of 25 %; it generated, in the EU alone, 150 000 jobs, mainly in the high-tech, research and services sectors.

2.4

As it stressed in a recent opinion (7), the EESC is even more concerned about the current uncertainty surrounding the legal, technical and financial arrangements and questions. This uncertainty affects both the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJA) and the Supervisory Authority (GSA) and could, if not resolved by the end of 2006, compromise the satisfactory completion of the different phases which were planned in order to ensure the system can be fully operational, and which can play a fundamental role in delivering a European economy based on more competitive knowledge, on a global level.

2.5

The EESC has previously highlighted the need to involve — from the very launch phase of the Galileo Joint Undertaking — private partners in the development and exploitation of the system, and to provide continuous support when the project is underway, given that Galileo is the biggest European public-private partnership ever.

2.6

At the end of the definition phase in May 2002, the Galileo Joint Undertaking was established in accordance with Article 171 of the EC Treaty by Regulation 876/2002/EC, with the EU and the ESA (8) as founding members, for a four-year period ‘to ensure the unity of the administration and financial control of the project for the research, development and demonstration of the Galileo Programme and to this end mobilise the funds assigned to that programme’.

2.7

The Galileo Joint Undertaking was set up to complete the development phase and to prepare the subsequent phases of the Galileo programme, with two main tasks:

2.8

In its Resolution on the Action Plan for implementing the European Space Policy (9) of 29 January 2004, the European Parliament also noted the vital importance of the Galileo Programme for the development of industry, transport, environmental protection and the delivery of the Lisbon Strategy objectives, and called on the Commission and the Council to provide Galileo with efficient structures, and for the creation of a Supervisory Authority to ensure, in addition to transparent operations, the safety of the system (10).

2.9

The Supervisory Authority was established under Council Regulation No 1321/2004/EC of 12 July 2004 and has been operational since mid-2006, to provide for management of public interests relating to the European EGNOS and Galileo satellite radio-navigation programmes, and to act as contracting authority for future satellite radio-navigation services concession contracts.

2.10

The current regulation does not provide scope for management of the development phase or any research work or activity during such or successive phases, nor does it provide the human and financial resources required to cope with such tasks.

2.11

The regulations of the GJU (11), on the other hand, provide for a four-year timeframe, which expired in mid-2006. The regulation should, therefore, be extended so that the entire satellite and ground component development phase and the ‘in-orbit’ system validation phase can be completed, along with negotiations for selecting the future concessionaire.

2.12

In order to avoid any further project delays and any uncertainty in relations between the different parties, the Committee believes there is a need to proceed with a rapid, transparent review of both the GJU and the GSA regulations, in order to provide the parties with clear ground rules when expertise is transferred between the two bodies.

2.13

The Committee endorses the objectives of the proposal under discussion, which aims to avoid the waste of resources and expertise that would derive from extending the work of the Galileo Joint Undertaking following the establishment of the European GSA Supervisory Authority, which already started operations in mid-2006.

2.14

The EESC considers, however, that the content of the proposal is inadequate, partly because it confines itself to the GJU statutes annexed to Regulation 876/2002/EC, and partly because the proposal should tie in with the review of the GSA regulation, on which the Committee has not thus far been consulted.

2.15

Given the current state of play, the Galileo development phase will not be completed before the end of 2008. Only then will the four satellites that are to be built and launched by the European Space Agency as part of the ‘in-orbit validation’ phase be operational. Consequently, and in accordance with the current statutes, the Galileo Joint Undertaking should continue to operate until the end of 2008, i.e. with a lifecycle approximately three years longer than initially intended.

2.16

Furthermore, the GSA was set up to provide for management of public interests relating to the European EGNOS and Galileo satellite radio-navigation programmes, and to act as contracting authority for future satellite radio-navigation services concession contracts, but not to manage the development phase or any research work or activity during that phase. In addition, the GSA has not been provided with the human and financial resources required to cope with such tasks.

2.17

The Committee shares the Council's stance on ‘the importance of promoting the European satellite radio-navigation system in order to achieve commercial success, particularly by research activities.’ The Council considers that ‘the largest proportion of the economic benefits of Galileo comes primarily from downstream applications’ (12).