Brussels, 09/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - Against the backdrop of the Commission's hopes to reinforce the strategic partnership between the EU and Latin America (see other article), a Galileo information centre for Latin America was inaugurated on 9 December in Sao José dos Campos (Brazil), by initiative of the joint company (Galileo Joint Undertaking), and enjoying the support of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA). The objective of the centre will be to serve as a point of contact between the agents of the satellite radio-navigation systems (GNSS) in Latin America and in Europe, and to promote the services and applications of the European Galileo system within the region, before looking at plans for cooperation, which will allow Latin America to take part in certain aspects of the European programme.
Interest in Galileo is growing among third countries, and the aim of the European satellite radio-navigation programme to work throughout the globe is to translate into the installation of some 50 monitoring sites in third countries with whom cooperation agreements have been concluded. For the time being, an agreement has been reached on where the main sites are to be located (Toulouse, London, Darmstadt, Oberpfaffenhoffen, Fucino, and probably Madrid for Spain: see EUROPE 9082), but it remains to be seen which city will host the headquarters of the GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA). The cities of Cardiff, Strasbourg, Athens and Noordwijk are the official candidates, but Spain and Italy, which is putting Rome forward, have also expressed their interest.