Galileo - Council Conclusions (Extract from: Provisional Version, Transport Council of 9 March)

March 10, 2004

Brussels, 09 Mar 2004

The Council adopted the following conclusions:

"Having regard to previous Resolutions and Conclusions of the Council on the GALILEO programme;

The Council:

1. NOTES the Commission Communication on "Progress report on the GALILEO research programme as at the beginning of 2004" presented to the European Parliament and the Council on 19 February 2004, which will be examined in the coming weeks;

2. WELCOMES the decisive progress achieved in the negotiations with the United States of America on compatibility and interoperability between the European GALILEO and the US GPS systems on 24/25 February 2004, which resulted in a mutually agreed text on all issues of substance and IS CONFIDENT that the agreement can be signed by June 2004 together with a jointly elaborated associated document on mutually acceptable national security compatibility criteria;

3. NOTES the interest shown by several third countries to the European GNSS and ENCOURAGES further development of international co-operation in this field;

4. UNDERLINES the need to establish a suitable structure for the management and the security aspects of the system in the near future and WELCOMES the progress made in this respect with a view to adopting the relevant Council instruments by the end of June 2004;

5. NOTES the pre-selection of three industrial consortia as a first step in the tendering procedure concerning the future GALILEO system operator and WELCOMES the confirmation by the bidding consortia of the potential of the European GNSS to generate substantial commercial revenue and their willingness to fund a considerable proportion of the investment from its own assets;

6. CALLS upon the GALILEO Joint Undertaking to pursue its work on the tendering procedure under the control of the Commission in close liaison with the Supervisory Board and to submit its conclusions on the best offer to the Commission by the end of September 2004;

7. INVITES the Commission to present, by the end of October 2004, a communication on the basis of which the Council will be able to take by the end of the year the necessary decisions on the start of the deployment and operational phases, including decisions on the maximum EC financial contributions for these phases, and on the definition of the services."


Item source: http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/trans/7934 5.pdf

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