Brussels, 06/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - An agreement on Ukraine's participation in Europe's satellite radionavigation programme finally reached approval. The agreement was initialled today in Kiev by François Lamoureux, Director-General for Energy and Transport at the European Commission, and by Oleh Shamshul, deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. A first agreement between the EU and Ukraine in the field of civil aviation was also initialled too. The agreement will give any European airline access to the Ukrainian market from any Member State of the EU and is a first step towards the creation of a Common Aviation Area with Ukraine.
The ever growing interest of third countries, in this case Ukraine, to participate in the GALILEO programme represents a big boost for the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) market, which is potentially considerable. The Ukrainian space industry is among the world's leader in the design and production of launchers and GNSS components. According to the Commission this involves 3 billion receivers and revenues of some €275 billion per year by 2020 worldwide, and the creation of more than 150.000 highly qualified jobs in Europe alone. The aviation agreement between the European Union and Ukraine brings existing bilateral air services agreements between the Member States and Ukraine in line with EU legislation. It ends the national provisions that do not authorise European carriers to fly to Ukraine unless they leave from their countries of origin.. The Commission has initialled similar agreements with 15 countries worldwide including Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Romania, Morocco as well as Georgia and Azerbaijan. Information: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm.