Negotiations on Global Navigation Satellite System: Transport Council, 27 March

Brussels, 28 March 2006

21st Council Meeting - Transport, Telecommunications and Energy. Brussels, March 2006
Provisional version

(GNSS)

The Commission briefed the Council on negotiations with the concession holder for the global navigation satellite system, led by the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU).

A first round of negotiations between the GJU and merged consortium ended on 17 February with the signature of an agreement of principles. A second round of negotiations started on 20 February and is ongoing.

The negotiations are focused on nine key issues: design risk, performance risk, completion risk, cost overrun risk, revenue risk, deployment risk, project risk coverage, compensation on termination and replenishment.

The Council underlined the necessity of a balanced risk sharing between the private and the public sector. It asked the Commission to submit information on the way forward for the third countries participation to Galileo in order to have an in-depth discussion at the TTE Council in June.

In addition, the Council invited the Commission to assess the outcome of the negotiations with the concession holder and to submit proposals for the financial instrument needed for the development of Galileo.