Israel joins Galileo: The Israel Entity, MATIMOP, on the way to becoming a Member of the Galileo Joint Undertaking

19 May 2005

The Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) and MATIMOP- Israeli Industry Centre for R&D reached agreement today on the future participation of MATIMOP in the GJU in order to contribute to the Galileo Programme.

MATIMOP is a non profit organization, under the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor, which promotes technological and R&D cooperation and technology transfer activities between Israeli and foreign industries.

The GJU has been set up in 2002 by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA) to manage the development phase of Galileo, the European global satellite navigation programme. The participation of an Israeli entity in the GJU was welcomed by the EU and Israel in the cooperation agreement concluded between EU and Israel in 2004. Rainer Grohe, Executive Director of the Galileo Joint Undertaking, expressed his enthusiasm about MATIMOP´s participation: This is a further important step towards making Galileo a truly global infrastructure. Israel's active participation will contribute to developing the Galileo Programme.

Grohe: Both Europe and Israel will benefit from this close cooperation, I am very proud to welcome MATIMOP within the Galileo Joint Undertaking.

I am aware that the Israeli space industry has a huge potential and I expect important contributions to the development of the Galileo system from their side. Yair Amitay, Managing Director of MATIMOP, stressed that based on Israel's past achievements in space technology, this Agreement will contribute significantly to the success of the Galileo Programme. It acts as an important milestone in furthering cooperation between Israeli and EU technological based industries.

MATIMOP is the second entity joining as a member of the Galileo Joint Undertaking, after the Chinese National Remote Sensing Centre of China joined last year.

Other countries like Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, India, Russia, etc. have been showing a great interest to be involved in Galileo, contributing to the development and growth of Galileo's applications markets. The EU and the US have signed an agreement to ensure compatibility between both Galileo and GPS systems.

Background

The Galileo Joint Undertaking has been set up by the EC and ESA to manage the development phase of the Galileo project. This includes the selection of the future Galileo concessionaire, the integration of EGNOS and the management of Galileo related activities within the 6th Framework Programme.

Galileo, the European satellite radio navigation programme, is global in scope. It will be financed by both public and private funds, given that the growth prospects of the products' and services' markets connected with satellite radio navigation are considerable, hence the reason for choosing to manage and operate the system in the form of a concession as part of a public-private partnership.

Galeleo Joint Undertaking -- GJU
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