The Member States' ambassadors to the European Union (Committee of Permanent Representatives - Coreper I) gave the green light on Wednesday 13 March to the interinstitutional agreement reached on the regulation establishing the 2021-2027 space programme, incorporating some amendments to respond to concerns expressed by the European Commission.
Thus, the agreement reached at the interinstitutional meeting at the end of February is reflected in its entirety (see EUROPE 12203/11), but includes amendments made to address the European Commission's concerns about the ability of the future EU Agency to sub-delegate certain tasks of the space programme to entities and/or Member States (see EUROPE 12204/4).
“The Commission welcomes the common understanding reached, which preserves the EU's interests and its decision-making autonomy with regards to third countries”, confirmed the spokesperson for the Internal Market and Industry, Lucia Caudet, contacted by EUROPE.
“The Commission has made it clear that third countries cannot participate in the EU decision-making process”, she continued, pointing out that after Brexit, the United Kingdom will no longer be able to participate in the design and manufacture of PRS modules, the public regulated service (PRS) of the European Galileo satellite navigation programme, which ensures secure communication between authorised users and those regulated by the competent national authorities.
As a reminder, after its public disapproval of the Interinstitutional Agreement (see EUROPE 12203/11), which led to a real thrashing from Parliament (see EUROPE 12205/3), the Commission proposed, at the beginning of March, a new wording of Articles 28 and 30 dedicated in particular to 'sub-delegation’. The objective is to ensure that sub-delegation does not run counter to the interests of the European Union and complies with the European Financial Regulation.
After examining the European Commission's proposals, the European Parliament and the EU Council rewrote and simplified them, which delayed the green light from the Member States, initially planned for Coreper last Wednesday (see EUROPE 12210/26). Finally, at the beginning of the week, the legal services of the three institutions reached an agreement, allowing its adoption within Coreper.
Now, the partial agreement must be adopted by the ‘Industry, Research and Energy’ Committee (ITRE) and then in plenary session in April.
Germany disagrees. During its intervention at the Coreper meeting, Germany was reportedly the only Member State not to support the agreement, again because of Article 5 on access to space.
To view the text of the agreement: https://bit.ly/2F7cy34. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)